Conventions  &  Platforms,  1876. 


Republican  National  Convention,  1876. 


This  body  met  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  on  the 
14th  of  June,  in  pursuance  of  the  following  call : 

The  next  Union  Republican  National  Conven¬ 
tion  for  the  nomination  of  candidates  for  Presi¬ 
dent  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States 
will  be  held  in  the  city  pf  Cincinnati,  on  Wednes¬ 
day,  the  fourteenth  day  of  June,  187(5,  at  12 
o’clock  noon,  and  will  consist  of  delegates  from 
each  State  equal  to  twice  the  number  of  its 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress,  and 
of  two  delegates  from  each  organized  Territory 
and  the  District  of  Columbia. 

In  calling  the  conventions  for  the  election  of 
delegates,  the  committees  of  the  several  States 
are  recommended  to  invite  all  Republican  elec¬ 
tors,  and  all  other  voters,  without  regard  to  past 
political  differences  or  previous  party  affiliations, 
who  are  opposed  to  reviving  sectional  issues,  and 
desire  to  promote  friendly  feeling  and  perma¬ 
nent  harmony  throughout  the  country  by  main¬ 
taining  and  enforcing  all  the  constitutional 
rights  of  every  citizen,  including  the  full  and 
free  exercise  of  the  right  of  suffrage  without  in¬ 
timidation  and  without  fraud ;  who  are  in  favor 
of  the  continued  prosecution  and  punishment 
of  all  official  dishonesty,  and  of  an  economical 
administration  of  the  Government  by  honest, 
faithful,  and  capable  officers ;  who  are  in  favor 
of  making  such  reforms  in  government  as  ex¬ 
perience  may  from  time  to  time  suggest;  who 
are  opposed  to  impairing  the  credit  of  the  na¬ 
tion  by  depreciating  any  of  its  obligations,  and 
in  favor  of  sustaining  in  every  way  the  national 
faith  and  financial  honor;  who  hold  that  the 
common-school  system  is  the  nursery  of  Ameri¬ 
can  liberty,  and  should  be  maintained  abso¬ 
lutely  free  from  sectarian  control ;  who  believe 
that,  for  the  promotion  of  these  ends,  the  direc¬ 
tion  of  the  Government  should  continue  to  be 
confided  to  those  who  adhere  to  the  principles 
of  177(5,  and  support  them  as  incorporated  in 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws ;  and  who  are  in 
favor  of  recognizing  and  strengthening  the  fun¬ 
damental  principle  of  National  Unity  in  this  Cen¬ 
tennial  Anniversary  of  the  birth  of  the  Republic. 

E.  1).  Morgan,  Chairman, 

Wm.  E.  Chandler,  Secretary. 
Republican  National  Committee. 

Washington,  January  13,  187(5. 

At  1 2  o’clock  it  was  called  to  order  by  Edwin 
D.  Morgan,  of  New  Y6rk,  on  whose  motion, 
after  some  remarks,  Theodore  M.  Pomeroy,  of 
New  York,  was  elected  temporally  President. 

On  motion,  committees  were  appointed,  con¬ 
sisting  of  one  from  each  State  and  Territory, 
elected  by  the  delegations  respectively,  on  Per¬ 
manent  Organization ;  on  Rules  and  Order  of 
Business ;  on  Credentials  ;  and  on  Resolutions. 


After  some  time,  during  which  speeches  were 
made  by  John  A.  Logan,  Joseph  li.  Hawley, 
Edward  F.  Noyes,  Henry  Highland  Garnet, 
William  A.  Howard,  and  Frederick  Doug¬ 
lass,  the  Committee  on  Permanent  Organiza¬ 
tion,  through  Geo.  B.  Loring,  of  Massachu¬ 
setts,  reported  a  list  of  officers,  who  were  elected 
— Edward  McPherson,  of  Pennsylvania,  being 
the  permanent  President. 

June  15 — After  some  preliminary  business, 
John  Cessna,  of  Pennsylvania,  from  the  Com¬ 
mittee  on  Rules  and  Order  of  Business,  reported 
the  following  rules  for  the  government  of  the 
Convention  : 

RULES  AND  ORDER  OF  BUSINESS. 

Rule  1.  Upon  all  subjects  before  the  Con¬ 
vention  the  States  shall  be  called  in  alphabetical 
order,  and  next  the  Territories  and  the  District 
of  Columbia. 

Rule  2.  Each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  double 
the  number  of  its  Senators  and  Representatives 
in  Congress,  according  to  the  late  apportion¬ 
ment,"  and  each  Territory  and  the  District  of 
Columbia  shall  be  entitled  to  two  votes.  The 
votes  of  each  delegation  shall  be  reported  by  its 
chairman. 

Rule  3.  The  report  of  the  Committee  on  Cre¬ 
dentials  shall  be  disposed  of  before  the  report  of 
the  Committee  on  Platform  and  Resolutions  is 
acted  upon,  and  the  report  of  the  Committee  of 
Platform  and  Resolutions  shall  be  disposed  of 
before  the  Convention  proceeds  to  the  nomina¬ 
tion  of  candidates  for  President  and  Vice-Presi¬ 
dent. 

Rule  4.  In  making  the  nominations  for  Presi¬ 
dent  and  Vice-President,  in  no  case  shall  the 
calling  of  the  roll  be  dispensed  with.  When  it 
shall  appear  that  any  candidate  has  received  the 
majority  of  the  votes  cast,  the  President  of  the 
Convention  shall  announce  the  question  to  be  : 
“  Shall  the  nomination  of  the  candidate  be  made 
unanimous  ?”  but  if  no  candidate  shall  have  re¬ 
ceived  a  majority  of  the  votes,  the  Chair  shall 
direct  the  vote  to  be  again  taken,  which  shall  be 
repeated  until  some  candidate  shall  have  re¬ 
ceived  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast ;  and  when 
any  State  has  announced  its  vote  it  shall  so  stand 
until  the  ballot  is  announced,  unless  in  case  of 
numerical  error. 

Rule  5.  When  a  majority  of  the  delegates  of 
any  two  States  shall  demand  that  a  vote  be  re¬ 
corded,  the  same  shall  be  taken  by  States,  Terri¬ 
tories  and  the  District  of  Columbia;  the  Secre¬ 
tary  calling  the  roll  of  the  States  and  Territories 
in  the  order  heretofore  stated,  and  the  District 
of  Columbia. 

Rule  (I.  In  the  record  of  the  vote  by  States 


2 


McPherson’s  hand-book  of  politics. 

/ 


the  vote  of  each  State,  Territory  and  the  Dis¬ 
trict  of  Columbia,  shall  be  announced  by  the  t 
Chairman,  and  in  case  the  votes  of  any  State, 
Territory  or  the  District  of  Columbia  shall  be  j 
divided,  the  Chairman  shall  announce  the  num¬ 
ber  of  votes  cast  for  any  candidate  or  for  or 
against  any  proposition. 

Rule  7.  When  the  previous  question  shall  be 
demanded  by  the  majority  of  the  delegates  from  J 
any  State,  and  the  demand  seconded  by  two  or  ! 
more  States,  and  the  call  sustained  by  a  ma-  ’ 
jority  of  the  Convention,  the  question  will  then 
be  proceeded  with  and  disposed  of  according  to  ! 
the  rules  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  j 
similar  cases. 

Rule  8.  No  member  shall  speak  more  than 
once  upon  the  same  question,  nor  longer  than 
five  minutes,  unless  by  leave  of  the  Convention  ; 
except  that  delegates  presenting  the  name  of  a 
candidate  shall  be  allowed  ten  minutes  in  pre- f 
senting  the  name  of  such  candidate. 

Rule  9.  The  rules  of  the  House  of  Repre-  ' 
sentatives  shall  be  the  rules  of  this  Convention,  j 
so  far  as  they  are  applicable,  and  not  incon-  j 
sistent  with  the  foregoing  rules. 

Rule  10.  A  Republican  National  Committee 
shall  be  appointed,  to  consist  of  one  member 
from  each  State,  Territory  and  District  repi*e- 
sented  in  this  Convention.  The  roll  shall  be 
called,  and  the  delegation  from  each  State,  Ter¬ 
ritory  and  District  shall  name,  through  their 
chairman,  a  person  to  act  as  a  member  of  such 
committee. 

Which  were  adopted. 

The  Committee  on  Credentials  then  made  re¬ 
port.  The  majority  of  the  committee  reported  j 
through  John  T.  Ensor,  of  Maryland,  in  favor  j 
of  admitting  the  Haralson  delegation  from  Ala¬ 
bama  ;  the  minority,  through  Charles  N.  Har¬ 
ris,  of  Nevada,  in  favor  of  the  Spencer  delega¬ 
tion.  The  minority  report  was  rejected — yeas  j 
354,  nays  375,  and  the  majority  report  then 
adopted.  The  Bowen  delegation  from  the  Dis¬ 
trict  of  Columbia  were  seated,  and  the  Conover 
delegation  from  Florida. 


Resolutions. 

Joseph  R.  Hawley,  Chairman  of  the  Com¬ 
mittee,*  reported  the  following : 

When,  in  the  economy  of  Providence,  this 

*The  committee  consisted  of  the  following  persons  : 
Arkansas — C.  C.  Waters  ;  Arizona — R.  C.  McCor-  ; 
mick  ;  California — Chas.  F.  Reed  ;  Connecticut — Jos.  I 
R.  Hawley  ;  Colorado — James  B.  Belford  ;  Dakota — An-  | 
drew  McHench  ;  Delaware — Eli  R.  Sharp  ;  Georgia — 
Henry  M  Turner  ;  Illinois — C.  B.  Farwell ;  Indiana —  j 
R.  W.  Thompson  ;  Iowa — Hiram  Price  ;  Idaho — Austin 
Savage;  Kansas — J.  D.  Thatcher;  Kentucky — James 
Speed  ;  Louisiana — Henry  Demoss  ;  Maine — Nelson 
Dingley  j r. ;  Maryland — L.  H.  Steiner;  Massachusetts 
— Edward  L.  Pierce;  Michigan — H.  P.  Baldwin;  Min¬ 
nesota — J.  E.  Wakefield ;  Mississippi — C.  W.  Clarke  ;  ! 
Missouri — R  T.  Van  Horn;  Montana — W.  F.  Sanders; 
New  Mexico — S.  B.  Axtell ;  Nebraska — A.  R.  Pinney  ;  | 
Nevada — J.  P.  Jones  ;  New  Hampshire — Chas.  Burns  ; 
New  Jersey — Frederick  A.  Potts;  New  York — Chas.  E. 
Smith  ;  North  Carolina — P.  C.  Badger  ;  Ohio — Edward 
Cowles  }  Oregon — H.  K.  Hines;  Pennsylvania — H.  W. 
Oliver;  Rhode  Island — Chas  Nourse  ;  Sotith  Carolina — 
D.  H.  Chamberlain  ;  Texas — E.  J.  Davis  ;  Tennessee — 
A.  A.  Freeman  ;  Utah — J.  B.  McKean  ;  Vermont — G.  H. 
Bigelow;  Virginia — Wm.  Miller;  West  Virginia — J.  W. 
Davis  ;  Wisconsin — Gen.  Jas.  H.  Howe  ;  Washington— 
Elwood  Evans  ;  Wyoming — Wm.  Hinton. 


land  was  to  be  purged  of  human  slavery,  and 
when  the  strength  of  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  was  to  be 
demonstrated,  the  Republican  party  came  into 
power.  Its  deeds  have  passed  into  history,  and 
we  look  back  to  them  with  pride.  Incited  by 
their  memories  to  high  aims  for  the  good  of  our 
country  and  mankind,  and  looking  to  the  future 
with  unfaltering  courage,  hope  and  purpose, 
we,  the  representatives  of  the  party  in  National 
Convention  assembled,  make  the  following 
declarations  of  principles : 

1.  The  United  States  of  America  is  a  Nation, 
not  a  league.  By  the  combined  workings  of  the 
National  and  State  Governments,  under  their 
respective  constitutions,  the  rights  of  every 
citizen  are  secured,  at  home  and  abroad,  and 
the  common  welfare  promoted. 

2.  The  Republican  party  has  preserved  these 
Governments  to  the  hundredth  anniversary  of 
the  Nation’s  birth,  and  they  are  now  embodi¬ 
ments  of  the  great  truths  spoken  at  its  cradle — 
“  that  all  men  are  created  equal ;  that  they  arc 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inaliena¬ 
ble  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness ;  that  for  the  attainment 
of  these  ends  Governments  have  been  instituted 
among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed.”  Until  these 
truths  are  cheerfully  obeyed,  or,  if  need  be, 
vigorously  enforced,  the  work  of  the  Republican 
party  is  unfinished. 

3.  The  permanent  pacification  of  the  Southern 
section  of  the  Union  and  the  complete  protec¬ 
tion  of  all  its  citizens  in  the  free  enjoyment  of 
all  their  rights,  is  a  duty  to  which  the  Republi¬ 
can  party  stands  sacredly  pledged.  The  power 
to  provide  for  the  enforcement  of  the  principles 
embodied  in  the  recent  constitutional  amend¬ 
ments,  is  vested  by  those  amendments  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  we  declare 
it  to  be  the  solemn  obligation  of  the  legislative 
and  executive  departments  of  the  Government 
to  put  into  immediate  and  vigorous  exercise  all 
their  constitutional  powers  for  removing  any 
just  causes  of  discontent  on  the  part  of  any 
class,  and  for  securing  to  every  American  citi¬ 
zen  complete  liberty  and  exact  equality  in  the 
exei’cise  of  all  civil,  political  and  public  rights. 
To  this  end  we  imperatively  demand  a  Congress 
and  a  Chief  Executive  whose  courage  and 
fidelity  to  these  duties  shall  not  falter  until 
these  results  are  placed  beyond  dispute  or  recall. 

4.  In  the  first  act  of  Congress  signed  by  Presi¬ 
dent  Grant,  the  National  Government  assumed 
to  remove  any  doubts  of  its  purpose  to  dis¬ 
charge  all  just  obligations  to  the  public  creditors, 
and  “  solemnly  pledged  its  faith  to  make  pro¬ 
vision  at  the  earliest  practicable  period  for  the 
redemption  of  the  United  States  notes  in  coin.” 
Commercial  prosperity,  public  morals  and  Na¬ 
tional  credit  demand  that  this  promise  be  ful¬ 
filled  by  a  continuous  and  steady  progress  to 
specie  payment. 

5.  Under  the  Constitution  the  President  and 
heads  of  departments  are  to  make  nominations 
for  office ;  the  Senate  is  to  advise  and  consent 
to  appointments,  and  the  House  of  Representa¬ 
tives  is  to  accuse  and  prosecute  faithless  officers. 
The  best  interest  of  the  public  service  demands 


McPHERSON’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


2 


I 

I 


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v 


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3 


that  these  distinctions  be  respected  ;  that  Sena¬ 
tors  and  Representatives  who  may  be  judges 
and  accusers  should  not  dictate  appointments 
to  office.  The  invariable  rule  in  appointments 
should  have  reference  to  the  honesty,  fidelity 
and  capacity  of  the  appointees,  giving  to  the 
party  in  power  those  places  where  harmony 
and  vigor  of  administration  require  its  policy 
to  be  represented,  but  permitting  all  others  to 
be  filled  by  persons  selected  with  sole  reference 
to  the  efficiency  of  the  public  service,  and  the 
right  of  all  citizens  to  share  in  the  honor  of 
rendering  faithful  service  to  the  country. 

6.  We  rejoice  in  the  quickened  conscience  of 
the  people  concerning  political  affairs’,  and  will 
hold  all  public  officers  to  a  rigid  responsibility, 
and  engage  that  the  prosecution  and  punishment 
of  all  -who  betray  official  trusts  shall  be  swift, 
thorough  and  unsparing. 

7.  The  public  school  system  of  the  several 
States  is  the  bulwark  of  the  American  Republic, 
and  with  a  view  to  its  security  and  permanence 
we  recommend  an  amendment  to  the  Constitu¬ 
tion  of  the  United  States  forbidding  the  appli¬ 
cation  of  any  public  funds  or  property  for  the 
benefit  of  any  schools  or  institutions  under  sec¬ 
tarian  control. 

8.  The  revenue  necessary  for  current  expend¬ 
itures  and  the  obligations  of  the  public  debt 
must  be  largely  derived  from  duties  upon  im¬ 
portations,  which,  so  far  as  possible,  should  be 
adjusted  to  promote  the  interests  of  American 
labor  and  advance  the  iirosperity  of  the  whole 
country. 

1).  We  reaffirm  our  opposition  to  further  grants 
of  the  public  lands  to  corporations  and  monop¬ 
olies,  and  demand  that  the  National  domain  be 
devoted  to  free  homes  for  the  people. 

10.  It  is  the  imperative  duty  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  so  to  modify  existing  treaties  with  Euro¬ 
pean  Governments,  that  the  same  protection 
shall  be  afforded  to  the  adopted  American  citi¬ 
zen  that  is  given  to  the  native  born  ;  and  that 
all  necessary  laws  should  be  passed  to  protect 
emigrants  in  the  absence  of  power  in  the  States 
for  that  purpose. 

11.  It  is  the  immediate  duty  of  Congress  to 
fully  investigate  the  effect  of  the  immigration 
and  importation  of  Mongolians  upon  the  moral 
and  material  interests  of  the  counti-y. 

12.  The  Republican  party  recognizes  with  ap¬ 
proval  the  substantial  advances  recently  made 
towards  the  establishment  of  equal  rights  for 
women  by  the  many  important  amendments  ef¬ 
fected  by  Republican  Legislatures  in  the  laws 
which  concern  the  personal  and  property  rela¬ 
tions  of  wives,  mothers,  and  widows,  and  by  the 
appointment  and  election  of  women  to  the  super¬ 
intendence  of  education,  charities  and  other 
public  trusts.  The  honest  demands  of  this  class 
of  citizens  for  additional  rights,  privileges  and 
immunities  should  be  treated  with  respectful 
consideration. 

13.  The  Constitution  confers  upon  Congress 
sovereign  power  over  the  Territories  of  the 
United  States  for  their  government,  and  in  the 
exercise  of  this  power  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of 
Congress  to  prohibit  and  extirpate,  in  the  Ter¬ 
ritories,  that  relic  of  barbarism — polygamy  ;  and 
we  demand  such  legislation  as  shall  secure  this 


end  and  the  supremacy  of  American  institutions 
in  nil  the  Territories. 

14.  The  pledges  which  the  Nation  has  given 
to  her  soldiers  and  sailors  must  be  fulfilled,  and 
a  grateful  people  will  always  hold  those  who  im¬ 
periled  their  lives  for  the  country’s  preservation, 
in  the  kindest  remembrance. 

15.  We  sincerely  deprecate  all  sectional  feel¬ 
ing  and  tendencies.  We  therefore  noto  witli 
deep  solicitude  that  the  Democratic  party  counts, 
as  its  chief  hope  of  success,  upon  the  electoral 
vote  of  a  united  South,  secured  through  the  ef¬ 
forts  of  those  who  were  recently  arrayed  against 
the  Nation  ;  and  we  invoke  the  earnest  attention 
of  the  country  to  the  grave  truth  that  a  success 
thus  achieved  would  reopen  sectional  strife  and 
imperil  National  honor  and  human  rights. 

1 G.  We  charge  the  Democratic  party  with  be¬ 
ing  the  same  in  character  and  spirit  as  when  it 
sympathized  with  treason  ;  with  making  its  con¬ 
trol  of  the  House  of  Representatives  the  triumph 
and  opportunity  of  the  Nation’s  recent  foes ; 
with  reasserting  and  applauding  in  the  National 
Capitol  the  sentiments  of  unrepentant  rebellion ; 
wTith  sending  Union  soldiers  to  the  rear,  and 
promoting  Confederate  soldiers  to  the  front ; 
with  deliberately  proposing  to  repudiate  the 
plighted  faith  of  the  Government ;  with  being 
equally  false  and  imbecile  upon  the  overshadow¬ 
ing  financial  questions ;  with  thwarting  the  ends 
of  justice  by  its  partisan  mismanagements  and 
obstruction  of  investigation ;  with  proving  it¬ 
self,  through  the  period  of  its  ascendency  in  the 
Lower  House  of  Congress,  utterly  incompetent 
to  administer  the  Government-  and  we  warn 
the  country  against  trusting  a  party  thus  alike 
unworthy,  recreant  and  incapable. . 

17.  The  National  Administration  merits  com¬ 
mendation  for  its  honorable  work  in  the  man¬ 
agement  of  domestic  and  foreign  affairs,  and 
President  Grant  deserves  the  continued  hearty 
gratitude  of  the  American  people  for  his  patri¬ 
otism  and  his  eminent  services,  in  war  and  in 
peace. 

18.  We  present  as  our  candidates  for  Presi¬ 
dent  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  two 
distinguished  statesmen,  of  eminent  ability  and 
character,  and  conspicuously  fitted  for  those  high 
offices,  and  we  confidently  appeal  to  the  Ameri¬ 
can  people  to  intrust  the  administration  of  their 
public  affairs  to  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  and  Wil¬ 
liam  A.  Wheeler. 

[The  last  resolution  was  adopted  after  the  nom¬ 
inations  were  made,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Smith, 
of  New  York.] 

Upon  the  reading  of  the  resolutions, 

Edwaud  L.  Piekce,  of  Massachusetts,  moved 
to  strike  out  the  the  eleventh  resolution  ;  which, 
after  debate,  was  disagreed  to — yeas  215,  nays 
532. 

Edmund  J.  Davis,  of  Texas,  moved  to  strike 
out  the  fourth  resolution  and  substitute  for  it 
the  following  : 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to 
provide  for  carrying  out  the  act  known  as  the 
Resumption  Act  of  Congress,  to  the  end  that  the 
resumption  of  specie  payments  may  not  be  lon¬ 
ger  delayed. 

Which,  after  a  brief  debate,  was  disagreed  to 
on  a  viva  voce  vote. 


4 


McPHERSON’S  HAND  BOOK  OF  POL  [TICS. 


The  resolutions  were  then  adopted  without  a 
division. 

NOMINATION  OF  CANDIDATES. 

Nominations  were  then  made  for  President  of 
the  United  States : 

By  Connecticut — Marshall  Je-well. 

By  Indiana — Oliver  P.  Morton. 

By  Kentucky — Benjamin  H.  Bristow. 

By  Maine — James  G.  Blaine. 

By  New  York — Roscoe  Conkling. 

By  Ohio — Rutherford  B.  Hayes. 

By  Pennsylvania — John  F.  Hartranft. 

After  the  speeches  in  favor  of  these  nominees, 
the  Convention  adjourned  till  to-morrow  at  10 
o’clock. 

June  10 — Seven  ballots  were  then  taken  with 
the  following  result  • 


ist  2d  3d  4th  5th  6th  7th 

Hayes .  61  64  67  68  104  113  384 

Blaine . 285  296  293  292  286  308  351 

Morton . 125  120  113  108  95  85 

Bristow . 113  114  121  126  114  hi  21 

CONKLING .  99  93  90  84  82  8l 

Hartranft .  58  63  68  71  69  50 

Jewell .  11  (withdrawn.) 

Wm.  A.  Wheeler.. .  332222... 

Elihu  B.  Washburne .  1  1  3  3  5 


Whole  No.  of  votes . 754  754  755  754  755  755  756 


Necessary  to  a  choice . 37S  378  378  378  378  378  379 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Frye  of  Maine,  Governor 
Hayes  was  unanimously  declared  the  nominee 
of  the  Convention. 

Messrs.  William  A.  Wheeler  of  New  York, 
Stewart  L.  Woodford  of  New  York,  Marshall 
Jewell  of  Connecticut,  Frederick  T.  Freling- 
huysen  of  New  Jersey,  and  Joseph  R.  Hawley 
of  Connecticut,  were  nominated  for  Vice-Presi¬ 
dent  ;  but  before  the  roll-call  was  completed,  it 
being  apparent  that  William  A.  Wheeler  had 
received  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast,  other  can¬ 
didates  were  by  consent  withdrawn,  and  he  was 
unanimously  declared  the  nominee  of  the  Con¬ 
vention. 

After  the  transaction  of  some  unimportant 
business,  the  Convention  adjourned  sine  die. 

Note — On  the  second  ballot  for  a  candidate 
for  President,  four  delegates  from  Pennsylvania 
rose  to  a  question  of  privilege,  and  demanded 
that  under  the  rules  of  the  Convention  they  had 
the  right  to  record  their  votes  independently  of 
a  majority  of  the  delegation.  The  Chair  held, 
that  under  the  Sixth  Rule  of  the  Convention, 
wrhich  was  the  paramount  law  on  the  subject, 
they  had  this  right.  The  ruling  was  appealed 
from,  and  after  discussion,  sustained,  on  a  vote 
by  States — yeas  395,  nays  354. 

Gov.  Hayes’  Letter  of  Acceptance. 

Columbus,  O.,  July  8,  1870. 

To  the  Hons.  Edward  McPherson,  Wm.  A. 

How'ard,  Jos.  H.  Rainey,  and  others ,  Com¬ 
mittee  of  the  National  Republican  Convention. 

Gentlemen  :  In  reply  to  your  official  commu 
nication  of  June  17,  by  which  I  am  informed  of 
my  nomination  for  the  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States  by  the  Republican  National  Con¬ 
vention  at  Cincinnati,  I  accept  the  nomination 
with  gratitude,  hoping  that,  under  Providence, 
I  shall  be  able,  if  elected,  to  execute  the  duties 


I  of  the  high  office  as  a  trust  for  the  benefit  of  all  the 
people.  I  do  not  deem  it  necessary  to  enter  upon 
any  extended  examination  of  the  declaration  of 
principles  made  by  the  Convention.  The  resolu¬ 
tions  are  in  accord  with  my  views,  and  I  heartily 
concur  in  the  principles  they  announce.  In  sev¬ 
eral  of  the  resolutions,  however,  questions  are 
considered  which  are  of  such  importance  that  I 
deem  it  proper  to  briefly  express  my  convictions 
in  regard  to  them.  The  fifth  resolution  adopted 
by  the  Convention  is  of  paramount  interest. 
More  than  forty  years  ago  a  system  of  making 
appointments  to  office  grew  up,  based  upon  the 
maxim  “  to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils.”  The 
old  rule,  the  true  rule,  that  honesty,  capacity 
and  fidelity  constitute  the  only  l'eal  qualification 
for  office,  and  that  there  is  no  other  claim,  gave 
place  to  the  idea  that  party  services  were  to  be 
chiefly  considered.  All  parties  in  practice  have 
adopted  this  system.  It  has  been  essentially 
modified  since  its  first  introduction.  It  has  not, 
however,  been  improved.  At  first  the  President, 
either  directly  or  through  the  heads  of  depart¬ 
ment,  made  all  the  appointments,  but  gradually 
the  appointing  power,  in  many  cases,  passed 
into  the  control  of  members  of  Congress.  The 
offices  in  these  cases  have  become  not  merely 
rewards  for  party  services,  but  rewards  for  ser¬ 
vices  to  party  leaders.  This  system  destroys 
the  independence  of  the  separate  departments 
of  the  Government.  “  It  tends  directly  to  ex¬ 
travagance  and  official  incapacity.”  It  is  a  temp¬ 
tation  to  dishonesty ;  it  hinders  and  impairs 
that  careful  supervision  and  strict  accountability 
by  which  alone  faithful  and  efficient  public  ser¬ 
vice  can  be  secured  ;  it  obstructs  the  prompt  re¬ 
moval  and  sure  punishment  of  the  unworthy  ; 
in  every  way  it  degrades  the  civil  service  and 
the  character  of  the  Government.  It  is  felt,  I 
am  confident,  by  a  large  majority  of  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  Congress,  to  be  an  intolerable  burden 
and  an  unwarrantable  hindrance  to  the  proper 
discharge  of  their  legitimate  duties.  It  ought  to 
be  abolished.  The  reform  should  be  thorough, 
radical,  and  complete.  We  should  return  to  the 
principles  and  practice  of  the  founders  of  the 
Government — supplying  by  legislation,  when 
needed,  that  which  was  formerly  the  established 
custom.  They  neither  expected  nor  desired 
from  the  public  officers  any  partisan  service. 
They  meant  that  public  officers  should  give  their 
whole  service  to  the  Government  and  to  the  peo¬ 
ple.  They  meant  that  the  officer  should  be  se¬ 
cure  in  his  tenure  as  long  as  his  personal  char¬ 
acter  remained  untarnished  and  the  performance 
of  his  duties  satisfactory.  If  elected,  I  shall 
conduct  the  administration  of  the  Government 
upon  these  principles,  and  all  constitutional 
powers  vested  in  the  Executive  will  be  employed 
to  establish  this  reform.  The  declaration  of 
principles'  by  the  Cincinnati  Convention  makes 
no  announcement  in  favor  of  a  single  Presiden- 
|  tial  term.  I  do  not  assume  to  add  to  that  decla¬ 
ration,  but  believing  that  the  restoration  of  the 
civil  service  to  the  system  established  by  Wash¬ 
ington  and  followed  by  the  early  Presidents  can 
be  best  accomplished  by  an  Executive  who  is 
under  no  temptation  to  use  the  patronage  of  his 
office  to  promote  his  own  re-election,  I  desire  to 
perform  what  I  regard  as  a  duty  in  stating  now 


McPIIBRSON’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


5 


my  inflexible  purpose,  if  elected,  not  to  be  a 
candidate  for  election  to  a  second  term. 

On  the  currency  question  I  have  frequently 
*  expressed  my  views  in  public,  and  I  stand  by  my 
record  on  this  subject.  I  regard  all  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  relating  to  the  payment  of  the 
public  indebtedness,  the  legal  tender  notes  in¬ 
cluded,  as  constituting  a  pledge  and  moral  obli¬ 
gation  of  the  Government,  which  must  in  good 
faith  be  kept.  It  is  my  conviction  that  the  feel¬ 
ing  of  uncertainty  inseparable  from  an  irredeem¬ 
able  paper  currency,  with  its  fluctuations  of 
value,  is  one  of  the  great  obstacles  to  a  revival 
of  confidence  and  business,  and  to  a  return  of 
prosperity.  That  uncertainty  can  be  ended  in 
but  one  way — the  resumption  of  specie  pay¬ 
ments.  But  the  longer  the  instability  of  our 
money  system  is  permitted  to  continue,  the 
greater  will  be  the  injury  inflicted  upon  our 
economical  interests  and  all  classes  of  society. 
If  elected,  I  shall  approve  every  appropriate 
measure  to  accomplish  the  desired  end  ;  and 
shall  oppose  any  step  backward.  The  resolution 
with  respect  to  the  public  school  system  is  one 
which  should  receive  the  hearty  support  of  the 
American  people.  Agitation  upon  this  subject 
is  to  be  apprehended,  until,  by  constitutional 
amendment  the  schools  are  placed  beyond  all 
danger  of  sectarian  control  or  interference. 
The  Republican  party  is  pledged  to  secure  such 
an  amendment. 

The  resolution  of  the  Convention  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  the  permanent  pacification  of  the  coun¬ 
try,  and  the  complete  protection  of  all  its 
citizens  in  the  free  enjoyment  of  all  their 
constitutional  rights,  is  timely  and  of  great  im¬ 
portance.  The  condition  of  the  Southern 
States  attracts  the  attention  and  commands  the 
sympathy  of  the  people  of  the  whole  Union. 
In  their  progressive  recovery  from  the  effects 
of  the  war,  their  first  necessity  is  an  intelligent 
and  honest  administration  of  government  which 
will  protect  all  classes  of  citizens  in  their  politi¬ 
cal  and  private  rights.  What  the  South  most 
needs  is  “peace,”  and  peace  depends  upon  the 
supremacy  of  the  law.  There  can  be  no  endur¬ 
ing  peace  if  the  constitutional  rights  of  any 
portion  of  the  people  are  habitually  disregarded. 
A  division  of  political  parties  resting  merely 
upon  sectional  lines  is  always  unfortunate  and 
may  be  disastrous.  The  welfare  of  the  South, 
alike  with  that  of  every  other  part  Of  this 
country,  depends  upon  the  attractions  it  can 
offer  to  labor  and  immigration,  and  to  capital. 
But  laborers  will  not  go,  and  capital  will  not 
be  ventured  where  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws  are  set  at  defiauce,  and  distraction,  appre¬ 
hension,  and  alarm  take  the  place  of  peace- 
loving,  and  law-abiding  social  life  All  parts 
of  the  Constitution  are  sacred  and  must  be 
sacredly  observed— the  parts  that  are  new  no 
less  than  the  parts  that  are  old.  The  moral 
and  national  prosperity  of  the  Southern  States 
can  be  most  effectually  advanced  by  a  hearty 
and  generous  recognition  of  the  rights  of  all, 
by  all— a  recognition  without  reserve  or  excep¬ 
tion.  \\  ith  such  a  recognition  fully  accorded  it 
will  be  practicable  to  promote,  by  the  influence 
of  all  legitimate  agencies  of  the  General  Gov¬ 
ernment,  the  efforts  of  the  people  of  those! 


States  to  obtain  for  themselves  the  blessings  of 
honest  and  capable  local  government.  If 
elected.  I  shall  consider  it  not  only  my  duty, 
but  it  will  be  my  ardent  desire  to  labor  for  the 
attainment  of  this  end. 

L«t  mb  assure  my  countrymen  of  the  South¬ 
ern  States  that  if  I  shall  be  charged  with  the 
duty  of  organizing  an  administration,  it  will  be 
one  which  will  regard  and  cherish  their  truest 
interests — the  interests  of  the  white  and  of  the 
colored  people  both,  and  equally ;  and  which 
will  put  forth  its  best  efforts  in  behalf  of  a  civil 
policy  which  will  wipe  out  forever  the  distinc¬ 
tion  betnveen  North  and  South  in  our  common 
country.  With  a  civil  service  organized  upon 
a  system  which  will  secure  purity,  experience, 
efficiency,  and  economy,  a  strict  regard  for  the 
public  welfare  solely  in  appointments,  and  the 
speedy,  thorough,  and  unsparing  prosecution 
and  punishment  of  all  public  officers  who  be¬ 
tray  official  trusts ;  with  a  sound  currency ; 
with  education  unsectarian  and  free  to  all ; 
with  simplicity  and  frugality  in  public  and 
private  affairs,  and  with  a  fraternal  spirit  of 
harmony  pervading  the  people  of  all  sections 
and  classes,  we  may  reasonably  hope  that  the 
second  century  of  our  existence  as  a  nation 
will,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  be  preeminent  as 
an  era  of  good  feeling  and  a  period  of  progress, 
prosperity,  and  happiness. 

Very  respectfully,  your  fellow-citizen, 

R.  B.  Hayes. 

Mr.  Wheeler’s  Acceptance. 

Malone,  July  15,  187C>. 

Hon.  Edward  McPherson ,  and  others ,  of  the 
(  onimittee  of  the  Republican  National  Con¬ 
vention  : 

Gentle:men  :  — I  received,  on  the  f>th  inst. , 
your  communication  advising  me  that  I  had 
been  unanimously  nominated  by  the  National 
Convention  of  the  Republican  party,  held  at 
Cincinnati  on  the  14th  ult.,  for  the  office  of 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States ;  and  re¬ 
questing  my  acceptance  of  the  same,  and  ask¬ 
ing  my  attention  to  the  summary  of  Republican 
doctrines  contained  in  the  platform  adopted  by 
the  Convention. 

A  nomination  made  with  such  unanimity 
implies  a  confidence  on  the  part  of  the  Conven¬ 
tion  which  inspires  my  profound  gratitude.  It 
is  accepted  with  a  sense  of  the  responsibility 
which  may  follow.  If  elected,  I  shall  endeavor 
to  perform  the  duties  of  the  office  in  the  fear 
of  the  Supreme  Ruler,  and  in  the  interest  of 
the  whole  country. 

To  the  summary  of  doctrines  enunciated  by 
the  Convention  I  give  my  cordial  assent.  The 
Republican  party  has  intrenched  in  the  organic 
law  of  our  land  the,  doctrine  that  liberty  is  the 
supreme,  unchangeable  law  for  every  foot  of 
American  soil.  It  is  the  mission  of  that  party 
to  give  full  effect  to  this  principle  by  “securing 
to  every  American  citizen  complete  liberty  and 
exact  equality  in  the  exercise  of  all  civil,  politi¬ 
cal  and  public  rights.”  This  will  be  accom¬ 
plished  only  when  the  American  citizen,  with¬ 
out  regard  to  color,  shall  wear  this  panoply  of 
citizenship  as  fully  and  as  securely  in  the  cane- 


McPHEltSON ’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


(J 

brakes  of  Louisiana  as  on  the  banks  of  the  St. 
Lawrence. 

Upon  the  question  of  our  Southern  relations, 
my  views  were  recently  expressed  as  a  member 
of  the  Committee  of  the  United  States  House  of 
Representatives  upon  Southern  Affairs.  Those 
view's  remain  unchanged,  and  wrere  tlms  ex¬ 
pressed  : 

“  We  of  the  North  delude  ourselves  in  expect¬ 
ing  that  the  masses  of  the  South,  so  far  behind 
in  many  of  the  attributes  of  enlightened  im¬ 
provement  and  civilization,  are,  in  the  brief 
period  of  ten  or  fifteen  years,  to  be  transformed 
into  our  model  Northern  communities.  That 
can  only  come  through  a  long  course  of  patient 
waiting,  to  which  no  one  can  now  set  certain 
bounds.  There  will  be  a  good  deal  of  unavoid¬ 
able  friction,  which  will  call  for  forbearance, 
and  w'hich  will  have  to  be  relieved  by  the  tem¬ 
perate,  fostering  care  of  the  government.  One 
of  the  most  potent,  if  not  indispensable  agencies 
in  this  direction,  wrill  be  the  devising  of  some 
system  to  aid  in  the  education  of  the  masses. 
The  fact  that  there  are  wffiole  counties  in 
Louisiana  in  which  there  is  not  a  solitary 
school-house,  is  full  of  suggestion.  We  com¬ 
pelled  these  people  to  remain  in  the  Union,  and 
now  duty  and  interest  demand  that  we  leave  no 
just  means  untried  to  make  them  good,  loyal 
citizens.  Howr  to  diminish  the  friction,  how'  to 
stimulate  the  elevation  of  this  portion  of  our 
country,  are  problems  addressing  themselves  to 
our  best  and  w'isest  statesmanship.  The  founda¬ 
tion  for  these  efforts  must  be  laid  in  satisfying 
the  Southern  people  that  they  are  to  have  equal, 
exact  justice  accorded  to  them.  Give  them,  to 
the  fullest  extent,  every  blessing  which  the 
government  confers  upon  the  most  favored — 
give  them  no  just  cause  for  complaint,  and  then 
hold  them,  by  every  necessary  means,  to  an 
exact,  rigid  observance  of  all  their  duties  and 
obligations  under  the  Constitution  and  its 
amendments  to  secure  to  all  within  their  bor¬ 
ders  manhood  and  citizenship,  with  every  right 
thereto  belonging.  ” 

The  just  obligations  to  public  creditors, 
created  when  the  government  wras  in  the  throes 
of  threatened  dissolution,  and  as  an  indispensa¬ 
ble  condition  of  its  salvation — guaranteed  by 
the  lives  and  blood  of  thousands  of  its  brave 
defenders — are  to  be  kept  wdth  religious  faith, 
as  are  all  the  pledges  subsidiary  thereto  and 
confirmatory  thereof. 

In  my  judgment  the  pledge  of  Congress  of 
January  14,  1875,  for  the  redemption  of  the 


notes  of  the  United  States  in  coin  is  the  plighted 
faith  of  the  nation,  and  national  honor,  simple 
honesty,  and  justice  to  the  people  wrhose  per¬ 
manent  welfare  and  prosperity  are  dependent  * 
upon  true  money,  as  the  basis  of  their  pecuniary 
transactions,  all  demand  the  scrupulous  observ¬ 
ance  of  this  pledge,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  Con¬ 
gress  to  supplement  it  wdth  such  legislation  as 
shall  be  necessary  for  its  strict  fulfillment. 

In  our  system  of  government  intelligence 
must  give  safety  and  value  to  the  ballot.  Hence 
the  common  schools  of  the  land  should  be  pre¬ 
served  in  all  their  vigor  ;  while,  in  accordance 
wdth  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  they  and  all 
their  endowments  should  be  secured  by  every 
possible  and  proper  guaranty  against  every  form 
of  sectarian  influence  or  control. 

There  should  be  the  strictest  economy  in  the 
expenditures  of  the  government  consistent  with 
its  effective  administration,  and  all  unnecessary 
offices  should  be  abolished.  Offices  should  be 
conferred  only  upon  the  basis  of  high  character 
and  particular  fitness,  and  should  be  adminis¬ 
tered  only  as  public  trusts,  and  not  for  private 
advantage. 

The  foregoing  are  chief  among  the  cardinal 
principles  of  the  Republican  party,  and  to  carry 
them  into  full,  practical  effect  is  the  w'ork  it  now 
has  in  hand.  To  the  completion  of  its  great 
mission  we  address  ourselves  in  hope  and  confi¬ 
dence,  cheered  and  stimulated  by  the  recollec¬ 
tion  of  its  past  achievements ;  remembering 
that,  under  God,  it  is  to  that  party  wre  are  in¬ 
debted  in  this  centennial  year  of  our  existence 
for  a  preserved,  unbroken  Union ;  for  the  fact 
that  there  is  no  master  or  slave  throughout  our 
broad  domains,  and  that  emancipated  millions 
look  upon  the  ensign  of  the  Republic  as  the 
symbol  of  the  fulfilled  declaration  that  all  men 
are  created  free  and  equal,  and  the  guaranty  of 
their  own  equality,  under  the  law,  with  the 
most  highly  favored  citizen  of  the  land. 

To  £he  intelligence  and  conscience  of  all  who 
desire  good  government,  good  will,  good  money 
and  universal  prosperity,  the  Republican  party, 
not  unmindful  of  the  imperfection  and  short¬ 
comings  of  human  organizations,  yet  wdth  the 
honest  purpose  of  its  masses  promptly  to  re¬ 
trieve  all  errors  and  to  summarily  punish  all 
offenders  against  the  laws  of  the  country,  con¬ 
fidently  submits  its  claims  for  the  continued 
support  of  the  American  people. 

Respectfully, 

William  A.  Wheeler. 


McPIfERSON’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


7 


Democratic  National  Convention. 


Call  for  I  lie  Convention. 

The  National  Democratic  Committee,  to  whom 
is  delegated  the  power  of  fixing  the  time  and 
place  of  holding  the  National  Democratic  Con¬ 
vention  of  1870,  have  appointed  Tuesday,  the 
27tli  day  of  June  next,  noon,  as  the  time,  and 
selected"  St.  Louis  as  the  place,  of  holding  such 
Convention.  Each  State  will  be  entitled  to  a 
representation  equal  to  double  the  number  of  its 
Senators  and  Representatives  in  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  Territory  of  Colo¬ 
rado,  whose  admission  in  July  as  a  State  will 
give  it  a  vote  in  the  next  electoral  college,  is 
also  invited  to  send  delegates  to  the  Convention. 
Democratic,  Conservative  and  other  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  irrespective  of  past  political 
associations,  desiring  to  cooperate  with  the 
Democratic  party  in  its  present  efforts  and  ob¬ 
jects,  are  cordially  invited  to  join  in  sending 
delegates  to  the  National  Convention.  Coop¬ 
eration  is  desired  from  all  persons  who  would 
change  an  administration  that  has  suffered  the 
public  credit  to  become  and  remain  inferior  to 
other  and  less-favored  nations ;  has  permitted 
commerce  to  be  taken  away  by  foreign  powers ; 
has  stifled  trade  by  unjust,  unequal  and  perni¬ 
cious  legislation  ;  has  imposed  unusual  taxation 
and  rendered  it  most  troublesome  ;  has  changed 
growing  prosperity  to  widespread  suffering  and 
want ;  has  squandered  the  public  moneys  reck¬ 
lessly  and  defiantly,  and  shamefully  used  the 
power  that  should  have  been  swift  to  punish 
crime,  to  protect  it. 

For  these  and  other  reasons  the  National 
Democratic  party  deem  the  public  danger  im¬ 
minent,  and  earnestly  desirous  of  securing  to 
our  country  the  blessing  of  an  economical, 
pure  and  free  government,  cordially  invite  the 
cooperation  of  their  fellow-citizens  in  the  effort 
to  attain  this  object. 

•  Augustus  Schell,  Chairman . 

The  Convention  met  as  per  the  call,  and  Mr. 
Schell,  after  making  some  remarks,  nominated 
Henry  Watterson,  of  Kentucky,  as  temporary 
chairman,  who  was  elected. 

The  rules  of  the  last  National  Democratic 
Convention  were  adopted.  Committees  on  Cre¬ 
dentials,  Permanent  Organization  and  on  Reso¬ 
lutions  were  appointed. 

Adjourned  till  5  o’clock,  p.  m. 

The  Territories  and  the  District  of  Columbia 
were  given  the  right  of  representation  as  States, 
but  not  the  right  to  vote. 

The  Committee  on  Permanent  Organization, 
through  Mr.  Hanna,  reported  a  list  of  officers, 
with  Gen.  John  A.  McClernand,  of  Illinois,  as 
the  permanent  President. 

Adjourned  till  to-morrow  at  11  o’clock. 

June  28 — The  convention  met,  listened  to 
speeches  from  Col.  Wm.  P.  Breckinridge,  of 
Kentucky,  Hon.  B.  Gratz  Brown,  of  Missouri, 
Hon.  Wm.  A.  Wallace,  of  Pennsylvania,  Hon. 
James  R.  Dooltttle,  of  Wisconsin,  and  others. 


At  2£  o’clock  the  convention  re-assembled,  and 
the  Committee  on  Resolutions  made  the  follow¬ 
ing  report  through  Mr.  Dorsheimeii,  of  New 
York : 

We,  the  delegates  of  the  Democratic  party  of 
the  United  States  in  National  Convention  as¬ 
sembled,  do  hereby  declare  the  administration 
of  the  Federal  Government  to  be  in  urgent  need 
of  immediate  reform ;  do  hereby  enjoin  upon 
the  nominees  of  this  Convention,  and  of  the 
Democratic  party  in  each  State,  a  zealous  effort 
and  cooperation  to  this  end ;  and  do  hereby 
appeal  to  our  fellow-citizens  of  every  former 
political  connection  to  undertake  with  us  this 
first  and  most  pressing  patriotic  duty. 

For  the  Democracy  of  the  whole  country,  we 
do  here  re-affirm  our  faith  in  the  permanence 
of  the  Federal  Union,  our  devotion  to  the  Con¬ 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  with  its  amend¬ 
ments  universally  accepted  as  a  final  settlement 
of  the  controversies  that  engendered  civil  war, 
and  do  here  record  our  steadfast  confidence  in 
the  perpetuity  of  republican  self-government. 

In  absolute  acquiescence  in  the  will  of  the 
majoritj7 — the  vital  principle  of  republics;  in 
the  supremacy  of  the  civil  over  the  military  au¬ 
thority  ;  in  the  total  separation  of  Church  and 
State,  for  the  sake  alike  of  civil  and  religious 
freedom ;  in  the  equality  of  all  citizens  before 
just  laws  of  their  own  enactment ;  in  the  liberty 
of  individual  conduct,  unvexed  by  sumptuary 
laws :  in  the  faithful  education  of  the  rising 
generation,  that  they  may  preserve,  enjoy,  and 
transmit  these  best  conditions  of  human  happi¬ 
ness  and  hope,  we  behold  the  noblest  products 
of  a  hundred  years  of  changeful  history ;  but 
while  upholding  the  bond  of  our  Union  and 
great  charter  of  these  our  rights,  it  behooves  a 
free  people  to  practice  also  that  eternal  vigilance 
which  is  the  price  of  liberty. 

Reform  is  necessary  to  rebuild  and  establish 
in  the  hearts  of  the  whole  people,  the  Union, 

I  eleven  years  ago  happily  rescued  from  the  dau- 
j  ger  of  a  secession  of  States ;  but  now  to  be 
I  saved  from  a  corrupt  centralism  which,  after 
I  inflicting  upon  ten  States  the  rapacity  of  carpet  - 
|  bag  tyrannies,  has  honeycombed  the  offices  of 
!  the  Federal  Government  itself  with  incapacity, 
waste,  and  fraud ;  infected  States  and  munici¬ 
palities  with  the  contagion  of  misrule,  and 
locked  fast  the  prosperity  of  an  industrious 
people  in  the  paralysis  of  “  hard  times.” 

Reform  is  necessarv  to  establish  a  sound  cur- 

#  v 

rency,  restore  the  public  credit,  and  maintain 
|  the  national  honor. 

We  denounce  the  failure,  for  all  these  eleven 
years  of  peace,  to  make  good  the  promise  of  the 
j  legal-tender  notes,  which  are  a  changing  stand¬ 
ard  of  value  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  the 
non-payment  of  which  is  a  disregard  of  the 
plighted  faith  of  the  nation. 

We  denounce  the  improvidence  which,  in 
eleven  years  of  peace,  has  taken  from  the  peo¬ 
ple  in  Federal  taxes  thirteen  times  the  whole 


8 


MoPHEESON’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


am  milt  of  the  legal-tender  notes,  and  squan¬ 
dered  four  times  their  sum  in  useless  expense 
without  accumulating  any  reserve  for  their  re¬ 
demption. 

We  denounce  the  financial  imbecility  and  im¬ 
morality  of  that  party,  which,  during  eleven  years 
of  peace,  has  made  no  advance  toward  resump¬ 
tion,  no  preparation  for  resumption,  but  instead 
has  obstructed  resumption,  by  wasting  our  re¬ 
sources  and  exhausting  all  our  surplus  income  ; 
and,  while  annually  professing  to  intend  a 
speedy  return  to  specie  payments,  has  annually 
enacted  fresh  hindrances  thereto.  As  such  hin¬ 
drance  we  denounce  the  resumption  clause  of 
the  act  of  1875  and  we  here  demand  its  repeal. 

We  demand  a  judicious  system  of  preparation 
by  public  economies,  by  official  retrenchments, 
and  by  wise  finance,  which  shall  enable  the  na¬ 
tion  soon  to  assure  the  whole  world  of  its  perfect 
ability  and  its  perfect  readiness  to  meet  any  of 
its  promises  at  the  call  of  the  creditor  entitled 
to  payment. 

We  believe  such  a  system,  well  devised,  and, 
above  all,  intrusted  to  competent  hands  for  exe¬ 
cution,  creating  at  no  time  an  artificial  scarcity 
of  currency,  and  at  no  time  alarming  the  public 
mind  into  a  withdrawal  of  that  vaster  machinery 
of  credit  by  which  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  all 
business  transactions  are  performed — a  system 
open,  public,  and  inspiring  general  confidence, 
would  from  the  day  of  its  adoption  bring  heal¬ 
ing  on  its  wings  to  all  our  harassed  industries, 
set  in  motion  the  wheels  of  commerce,  manu¬ 
factures,  and  the  mechanic  arts,  restore  employ¬ 
ment  to  labor,  and  renew7  in  all  its  natural 
sources  the  prosperity  of  the  people. 

Beform  is  necessary  in  the  sum  and  modes  of 
Federal  taxation,  to  the  end  that  capital  may 
be  set  free  from  distrust,  and  labor  lightly  bur¬ 
dened. 

We  denounce  the  present  Tariff,  levied  upon 
nearly  4,000  articles,  as  a  master-piece  of  injus¬ 
tice,  inequality  and  false  pretence.  It  yields  a 
dwindling,  no  t  a  yearly  rising  revenue.  It  has 
impoverished  many  industries  to  subsidize  a  few. 
It  prohibits  imports  that  might  purchase  the 
products  of  American  labor.  It  has  degraded 
American  commerce  from  the  first  to  an  inferior 
rank  on  the  high  seas.  It  has  cut  down  the 
sales  of  American  manufactures  at  home  and 
abroad  and  depleted  the  returns  of  American 
agriculture — an  industry  followed  by  half  our 
people.  It  costs  the  people  five  times  more 
than  it  produces  to  the  Treasury,  obstructs  the 
processes  of  production,  and  wrastes  the  fruits  of 
labor.  It  promotes  fraud,  fosters  smuggling, 
enriches  dishonest  officials,  and  bankrupts  hon¬ 
est  merchants.  We  demand  that  all  Custom 
House  taxation  shall  be  only  for  revenue. 

Beform  is  necessary  in  the  scale  of  public  ex¬ 
pense — Federal,  State,  and  Municipal.  Our 
F ederal  taxation  has  sw'ollen  from  sixty  millions 
gold,  in  18G0,  to  four  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
currency,  in  1870 ;  our  aggregate  taxation  from 
one  hundred  and  fifty-four  millions  gold,  in 
1SG0,  to  seven  hundred  and  thirty  millions  cur¬ 
rency,  in  1870  ;  or  in  one  decade  from  less  than 
five  dollars  per  head  to  more  than  eighteen  dol¬ 
lars  per  head.  Since  the  peace,  the  people  have 
paid  to  their  tax  gatherers  more  than  thrice  the 


sum  of  the  national  debt,  and  more  than  twice 
that  sum  for  the  Federal  Government  alone. 
We  demand  a  rigorous  frugality  in  every  depart¬ 
ment,  and  from  every  officer  of  the  government. 

Beform  is  necessary  to  put  a  stop  to  the  profli¬ 
gate  waste  of  public  lands,  and  their  diversion 
from  actual  settlers  by  the  party  in  power,  which 
has  squandered  200,000,000  of  acres  upon  rail¬ 
roads  alone,  and  out  of  more  than  thrice  that 
aggregate  has  disposed  of  less  than  a  sixth  di¬ 
rectly  to  tillers  of  the  soil. 

Beform  is  necessary  to  correct  the  omissions 
of  a  Bepublican  Congress,  and  the  errors  of  our 
treaties  and  our  diplomacy  which  have  stripped 
our  fellow  citizens  of  foreign  birth  and  kindred 
race  recrossing  the  Atlantic,  of  the  shield  of 
American  citizenship,  and  have  exposed  our 
brethren  of  the  Pacific  coast  to  the  incursions 
of  a  race  not  sprung  from  the  same  great  parent 
stock,  and  in  fact  now  by  law  denied  citi¬ 
zenship  through  naturalization  as  being  neither 
accustomed  to  the  traditions  of  a  progressive 
civilization  nor  exercised  in  liberty  under  equal 
laws.  We  denounce  the  policy  which  thus  dis¬ 
cards  the  liberty-loving  German  and  tolerates 
a  revival  of  the  coolie  trade  in  Mongolian  w7o- 
men  imported  for  immoral  purposes  and  Mon¬ 
golian  men  held  to  perform  servile  labor  con¬ 
tracts,  aud  demand  such  modification  of  the 
treaty  with  the  Chinese  Empire  or  such  legisla¬ 
tion  within  constitutional  limitations  as  shall 
prevent  further  importation  or  immigration  of 
the  Mongolian  race. 

Beform  is  necessary  and  can  never  be  effected 
but  by  making  it  the  controlling  issue  of  the 
!  elections,  and  lifting  it  above  the  twro  false 
issues  with  wffiich  the  office-holding  class  and 
the  party  in  power  seek  to  smother  it : 

1.  The  false  issue  with  which  they  would  en¬ 
kindle  sectarian  strife  in  respect  to  the  public 
schools,  of  which  the  establishment  and  support 
belong  exclusively  to  the  several  States,  and 
which  the  Democratic  party  has  cherished  from 
their  foundation,  and  is  resolved  to  maintain 
without  prejudice  or  preference  for  any  class, 
sect  or  creed,  and  without  largesses  from  the 
treasury  to  any. 

2.  The  false  issue  by  which  they  seek  to  light 
anew  the  dying  embers  of  sectional  hate  between 
kindred  peoples  once  estranged,  but  now  re¬ 
united  in  one  indivisible  republic  and  a  common 

!  destiny. 

Beform  is  necessary  in  the  Civil  Service.  Ex¬ 
perience  proves  that  efficient,  economical  con¬ 
duct  of  the  governmental  business  is  not  possible 
if  its  civil  service  be  subject  to  change  at  every 
!  election,  be  a  prize  fought  for  at  the  ballot-box, 
be  a  brief  reward  of  party  zeal,  instead  of  posts 
of  honor  assigned  for  proved  competency  and 
held  for  fidelity  in  the  public  employ  ;  that  the 
dispensing  of  patronage  should  neither  be  a  tax 
upon  the  time  of  all  our  public  men,  nor  the  in¬ 
strument  of  their  ambition.  Here  again  prom¬ 
ises  falsified  in  the  performance,  attest  that  the 
party  in  powrer  can  work  out  no  practical  or 
salutary  reform. 

Beform  is  necessary  even  more  in  the  higher 
grades  of  the  public  service.  President,  Vice- 
President,  Judges,  Senators,  Bepresentatives, 
Cabinet  officers,  these  and  all  others  in  authority 


McPherson  s  hand-book  of  politics. 


are  the  people's  servants.  Their  offices  are  not 
a  private  perquisite ;  they  are  a  public  trust. 

When  the  annals  of  this  Republic  show  the 
disgrace  and  censure  of  a  Vice-President;  a  late 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  mar¬ 
keting  liis  ruling*  as  a  presiding  officer :  three 
Senators  profiting  secretly  by  their  votes  as  law¬ 
makers  ;  five  chairmen  of  the  leading  commit¬ 
tees  of  the  late  House  of  Representatives  ex¬ 
posed  in  jobbery  ;  a  late  Secretary  of  the  Treas¬ 
ury  forcing  balances  in  the  public  accounts ;  a 
late  Attorney-General  misappropriating  public 
funds ;  a  Secretary  of  the  Navy  enriched  or  en¬ 
riching  friends  by  percentages  levied  off  the 
profits  of  contractors  with  his  department ;  an 
Ambassador  to  England  censured  in  a  dishon¬ 
orable  speculation  ;  the  President’s  private  sec¬ 
retary  barely  escaping  conviction  upon  trial  for 
guilty  complicity  in  frauds  upon  the  revenue ; 
a  Secretary  of  War  impeached  for  high  crimes 
and  misdemeanors — the  demonstration  is  com¬ 
plete,  that  the  first  step  in  reform  must  be  the 
people’s  choice  of  honest  men  from  another 
party,  lest  the  disease  of  one  political  organiza¬ 
tion  infect  the  body  politic,  and  lest  by  making 
no  change  of  men  or  parties  we  get  no  change 
of  measures  and  no  real  reform. 

All  these  abuses,  wrongs,  and  crimes,  the 
product  of  sixteen  years’  ascendency  of  the  Re¬ 
publican  party,  create  a  necessity  for  reform 
confessed  by  Republicans  themselves ;  but  their 
reformers  are  voted  down  in  convention  and 
displaced  from  the  Cabinet.  The  party’s  mass 
of  honest  voters  is  powerless  to  resist  the 
80,000  office-holders,  its  leaders  and  guides. 

Reform  can  only  be  had  by  a  peaceful  civic 
revolution.  We  demand  a  change  of  system,  a 
change  of  administration,  a  change  of  parties, 
that  we  may  have  a  change  of  measures  and  of 
men. 

Resolved ,  That  this  Convention,  representing 
the  Democratic  party  of  the  United  States,  do 
cordially  indorse  the  action  of  the  present  House 
of  Representatives  in  reducing  and  curtailing 
the  expenses  of  the  Federal  Government,  in 
cutting  down  salaries,  extravagant  appropria¬ 
tions,  and  in  abolishing  useless  offices  and 
places  not  required  by  the  public  necessities, 
and  we  shall  trust  to  the  firmness  of  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  members  of  the  House  that  no  committee 
of  conference  and  no  misinterpretation  of  the 
rules  will  be  allowed  to  defeat  these  wholesome 
measures  of  economy  demanded  by  the  country. 

Resolved ,  That  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the 
Republic  and  the  widows  and  orphans  of  those 
who  have  fallen  in  battle  have  a  just  claim  upon 
the  care,  protection,  and  gratitude  of  their  fel¬ 
low-citizens. 

[The  Committee  consisted  of  the  following 
persons  :  Alabama ,  Leroy  P.  Walker;  Arkan¬ 
sas,  L.  V.  Maguire;  California ,  John  8.  Hager; 
Colorado,  F.  J.  Marshall ;  Connecticut ,  R.  D. 
Hubbard  ;  J)elaware ,  George  Gray  ;  Florida. , 
John  Westcott;  Georgia ,  C.  F.  Howell;  Illi¬ 
nois,  John  A.  McClernand ;  Indiana,  D.  W. 
Voorhees  ;  Iowa,  H.  II.  Trimble  ;  Kansas , 
Thomas  L.  Davis;  Kentucky,  Alvin  Duval; 
Louisiana,  R.  H.  Mann ;  Maine,  D.  R.  Hast¬ 
ings;  Maryland,  George  Freaner ;  Massacliu- 
setts,  Edward  Avery ;  Michigan ,  William  L. 


1) 

I  Bancroft ;  Minnesota,  Daniel  Bucks  ;  Missis¬ 
sippi,  A.  M.  Clayton ;  Missouri,  C.  H.  Hardin  ; 
j  Nebraska ,  George  L.  Emlen ;  Nevada,  A.  C. 
Ellis ;  New  Hampshire,  E.  C.  Barley  ;  New 
Jersey,  Joseph  Gates  ;  New  York,  William 
|  Dorsheimer;  North  Carolina,  Thomas  L  Cling- 
!  man ;  Ohio,  Thomas  Ewing ;  Oregon,  M.  V. 
Brown ;  Pennsylvania,  Malcolm  Hay ;  Rhode 
Island,  W.  B.  Beach  :  South  Carolina,  Ham. 
McGowan  ;  Tennessee,  John  C.  Brown  ;  Texas, 
Aslibel  Smith  ;  Veo'mont,  James  H.  Williams  ; 
Virginia,  John  A.  Meredith ;  West  Virginia., 

\  John  J.  Davis  ;  Wisconsin,  Alex.  Mitchell. 

The  above  is  believed  to  be  a  correct  copy  of 
the  Platform  as  adopted.  For  a  time,  some 
1  confusion  existed  on  this  question,  caused  by 
the  publication  in  the  N.  Y.  Sun ,  of  July  7, 

1  1878,  (and  probably  other  papers,)  of  a  copy, 

!  purporting  to  be  “  official,”  but  which  was  no¬ 
ticeably  inaccurate  and  incomplete. — Editor.] 

Pending  the  report, 

Mr.  Thomas  Ewing,  of  Ohio,  presented  the 
I  following  minority  report  : 

The  undersigned  members  of  the  Committee 
recommend  that  the  following  clause  in  the 
resolutions  reported  by  the  Committee  be 
stricken  out:  “  As  such  hindrance  we  denounce 
the  resumption  clause  of  the  act  of  1875,  and 
we  here  demand  its  repeal.”  And  they  recom¬ 
mend  that  there  be  substituted  for  that  clause 
the  following  :  “  The  law  for  the  resumption 
of  specie  payments  on  the  1st  of  January,  1870, 
having  been  enacted  by  the  Republican  party 
without  deliberation  in  Congress  or  discussion 
before  the  people,  and  being  both  ineffective 
to  secure  its  objects  and  highly  injurious  to 
the  business  of  the  country,  ought  to  be  forth¬ 
with  repealed.”  T.  Ewing,  Ohio. 

D.  W.  Voorhees,  Indiana. 

J.  C.  Brown,  Tennessee. 

Malcolm  Hat,  Penn. 

H.  H.  Trimble,  Iowa. 

J.  J.  Davis,  West  Virginia. 

T.  L.  Davis,  Kansas. 

E.  H.  Hardin,  Missouri. 

After  debate,  the  Convention  rejected  the 

minority  report — yeas  211),  nays  550. 

The  Platform,  as  reported,  was  then  adopted 
—yeas  651,  nays  83. 

nomination  of  candidates. 

!  By  Delaware — Thomas  F.  Bayard. 

By  Indiana — Thomas  A.  Hendricks. 

By  New  Jersey — Joel  Parker. 

By  New  York — Samuel  J.  Tilden. 

By  Ohio — William  Allen. 

By  Pennsylvania — Winfield  S.  Hancock. 

I  After  speech  making  and  seconding  these 
nominations,  the  Convention  balloted,  and 


i  with  this  result : 

1st.  2d. 

i  Samuel  J.  Tilden .  417  535 

Thomas  A.  Hendricks .  140  (50 

1  Winfield  S.  Hancock .  75  50 

William  Allen .  5(5  54 

Thomas  F.  Bayard .  33  11 

Joel  Parker .  18  18 

Allen  G.  Thurman .  00  7 

730  744 


10 


McPIIEliSON’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


Mr.  Tilden’s  nomination  was  made  unani¬ 
mous,  and  the  Convention  adjourned  till  to¬ 
morrow. 

June  2G — Hon.  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  of 
Indiana,  was  nominated  by  acclamation. 

Mr.  Webber,  of  Michigan,  offered  this  reso¬ 
lution  : 

Resolved ,  That  it  be  recommended  to  future 
National  Democratic  Conventions,  as  the  sense 
of  the  Democracy  here  in  Convention  assem¬ 
bled,  that  the  so-called  two-thirds  rule  be  abol¬ 
ished  as  unwise  and  unnecessary  ;  and  that  the 
States  be  requested  to  instruct  their  delegates 
to  the  Democratic  National  Convention  which 
is  to  be  held  in  1880  whether  it  is  desirable  to 
continue  the  two-thirds  rule  longer  in  force  in 
the  National  Conventions,  and  that  the  National 
Committee  insert  such  request  in  their  call  for 
the  Convention. 

A  division  of  the  question  was  called,  to  end 
with  the  word  ‘  ‘  unnecessary.  ” 

The  first  division  was  disagreed  to,  and  the 
second  agreed  to. 

After  transacting  some  routine  business  the 
Convention  adjourned  sine  die. 


Gov.  Tilden’s  tetter  of  Accept¬ 
ance. 

Albany,  July  31,  187G. 

Gentlemen  :  When  I  had  the  honor  to  re¬ 
ceive  a  personal  delivery  of  your  letter  on  be¬ 
half  of  the  Democratic  National  Convention, 
held  on  the  28th  of  June  at  St.  Louis,  advising 
me  of  my  nomination  as  the  candidate  of  the 
constituency  represented  by  that  body  for  the 
office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  I  an¬ 
swered  that,  at  my  earliest  convenience,  and  in 
conformity  with  usage,  I  would  prepare  and 
transmit  to  you  a  formal  acceptance.  I  now  avail 
myself  of  the  first  interval  in  unavoidable  occu¬ 
pations  to  fulfill  that  engagement.  The  conven¬ 
tion,  before  making  its  nominations,  adopted  a 
declaration  of  principles,  which,  as  a  whole, 
seems  to  me  a  wise  exposition  of  the  necessities 
of  our  country,  and  of  the  reforms  needed  to 
bring  back  the  Government  to  its  true  func¬ 
tions,  to  restore  purity  of  administration,  and 
to  renew  the  prosperity  of  the  people.  But 
some  of  these  reforms  are  so  urgent  that  they 
claim  more  than  a  passing  approval. 

The  necessity  of  a  reform  “in  the  scale  of 
public  expense — Federal,  State,  and  Munici¬ 
pal,” — and  “  in  the  modes  of  Federal  taxa¬ 
tion,”  justifies  all  the  prominence  given  to  it 
in  the  declaration  of  the  St.  Louis  Convention. 
The  present  depression  in  all  the  business  and 
industries  of  the  people,  which  is  depriving 
labor  of  its  employment,  and  carrying  want 
into  so  many  homes,  has  its  principal  cause  in 
excessive  Governmental  consumption.  Under 
the  illusions  of  a  specious  prosperity  engen¬ 
dered  by  the  false  policies  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
vernment,  a  waste  of  capital  has  been  going  on 
ever  since  the  peace  of  18G5,  which  could  only 
end  in  universal  disaster.  The  Federal  taxes 
of  the  last  eleven  years  reach  the  gigantic  sum 
of  four  thousand  five  hundred  millions.  Local 
taxation  has  amounted  to  two-thirds  as  much 
more.  The  vast  aggregate  is  not  less  than 


seven  thousand  five  hundred  millions.  This 
enormous  taxation  followed  a  civil  conflict  that 
had  greatly  impaired  our  aggregate  wealth,  and 
had  made  a  prompt  reduction  of  expenses  in¬ 
dispensable.  It  was  aggravated  by  most  un¬ 
scientific  and  ill-adjusted  methods  of  taxation 
that  increased  the  sacrificesnof  the  people  far 
beyond  the  receipts  of  the  Treasury.  It  was 
aggravated,  moreover,  by  a  financial  policy 
which  tended  to  diminish  the  energy,  skill  and 
economy  of  production,  and  the  frugality  of 
private  consumption,  and  induced  miscalcula¬ 
tion  in  business  and  an  unremunerative  use  of 
capital  and  labor.  Even  in  prosperous  times, 
the  daily  wants  of  industrious  communities 
press  closely  upon  their  daily  earnings.  The 
margin  of  possible  national  savings  is  at  best  a 
small  percentage  of  national  earnings.  Yet  now 
for  these  eleven  years  governmental  consump¬ 
tion  has  been  a  larger  portion  of  the  national 
earnings  than  the  whole  people  can  possibly 
save  even  in  prosperous  times  for  all  new  in¬ 
vestments.  The  consequences  of  these  errors 
are  now  a  present  public  calamity.  But  they 
were  never  doubtful,  never  invisible.  They 
were  necessary  and  inevitable,  and  were  fore¬ 
seen  and  depicted  when  the  waves  of  that  fic¬ 
titious  prosperity  ran  highest.  In  a  speech 
made  by  me  on  the  24th  of  September,  18G8, 
it  was  said  of  these  taxes  : 

“  They  bear  heavily  upon  every  man’s  in¬ 
come,  upon  every  industry  and  every  business 
in  the  country,  and  year  by  year  they  are  des¬ 
tined  to  press  still  more  heavily,  unless  we 
arrest  the  system  that  gives  rise  to  them.  It 
was  comparatively  easy  when  values  were 
doubling  under  repeated  issues  of  legal  tender 
paper  money,  to  pay  out  of  the  froth  of  our 
growing  and  apparent  wealth  these  taxes,  but 
when  values  recede  and  sink  toward  their  nat¬ 
ural  scale,  the  tax-gatherer  takes  from  us  not 
only  our  income,  not  only  our  profits,  but  also 
a  portion  of  our  capital.  *  *  *  I  do  not 

wish  to  exaggerate  or  alarm  ;  I  simply  say  that 
we  cannot  afford  the  costly  and  ruinous  policy 
of  the  Radical  majority  of  Congress.  We  can¬ 
not  afford  that  policy  toward  the  South.  We 
cannot  afford  the  magnificent  and  oppressive 
centralism  into  which  our  Government  is  being 
converted.  We  cannot  afford  the  present  mag¬ 
nificent  scale  of  taxation.” 

To  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  I  said,  early 
in  18G5 : 

“  There  is  no  royal  road  for  a  government 
more  than  for  an  individual  or  a  corporation. 

!  What  you  want  to  do  now  is  to  cut  down  your 
expenses  and  live  within  your  income.  I  would 
give  all  the  legerdemain  of  finance  and  finan¬ 
ciering — I  would  give  the  whole  of  it  for  the 
old,  homely  maxim,  ‘  Live  within  your  in¬ 
come.’  ” 

This  reform  will  be  resisted,  at  every  step, 

!  but  it  must  be  pressed  persistently.  We  see 
to-day  the  immediate  representatives  of  the 
people  in  one  branch  of  Congress,  while  strug¬ 
gling  to  reduce  expenditures,  compelled  to  con¬ 
front  the  menace  of  the  Senate  and  the  Execu¬ 
tive  that  unless  the  objectionable  appropria¬ 
tions  be  consented  to,  the  operations  of  the 
Government  thereunder  shall  suffer  detriment 


MoPHEKSON’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


1  1 


or  cease.  In  my  judgment  an  amendment  of 
the  Constitution  ouglit  to  be  devised  separating 
into  distinct  bills  the  appropriations  for  the 
various  departments  of  the  public  service,  and 
excluding  from  each  bill  all  appropriations  for 
other  objects  and  all  independent  legislation. 
In  that  way  alone  can  the  revisory  power  of 
each  of  the  two  houses  and  of  the  Executive  be 
preserved  and  exempted  from  the  moral  duress 
which  often  compels  assent  to  objectionable 
appropriations  rather  than  stop  the  wheels  of 
Government 

An  accessory  cause  enhancing  the  distress  in 
business  is  to  be  found  in  the  systematic  and 
insupportable  misgovernment  imposed  upon 
the  States  of  the  South.  Besides  the  ordinary 
effects  of  ignorant  and  dishonest  administra¬ 
tion,  it  has  inflicted  upon  them  enormous  issues 
of  fraudulent  bonds,  the  scanty  avails  of  which 
were  wasted  or  stolen,  and  the  existence  of 
which  is  a  public  discredit,  tending  to  bank¬ 
ruptcy  or  repudiation.  Taxes,  generally  op¬ 
pressive,  in  some  instances  have  confiscated  the 
entire  income  of  property  and  totally  destroyed 
its  marketable  value.  It  is  impossible  that  these 
evils  should  not  re-act  upon  the  prosperity  of 
the  whole  country.  The  nobler  motives  of 
humanity  concur  with  the  material  interests  of 
all  in  requiring  that  every  obstacle  be  removed, 
to  a  complete  and  durable  reconciliation  between 
kindred  populations  once  unnaturally  estranged, 
on  the  basis  recognized  by  the  St.  Louis  plat¬ 
form,  of  the  “Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
with  its  amendments  universally  accepted  as  a 
final  settlement  of  the  controversies  which  en¬ 
gendered  civil  war.”  But.  in  aid  of  a  result 
so  beneficent,  the  moral  influence  of  every  good 
citizen,  as  well  as  every  governmental  authority, 
ought  to  be  exerted,  not  alone  to  maintain  their 
just  equality  before  the  law,  but  likewise  to 
establish  a  cordial  fraternity  and  good  will 
among  citizens,  whatever  their  race  or  color, 
who  are  now  united  in  the  one  destiny  of  a 
common  self-government.  If  the  duty  shall  be 
assigned  to  me,  I  should  not  fail  to  exercise  the 
powers  with  which  the  laws  and  the  Constitu¬ 
tion  of  our  country  clothe  its  Chief  Magistrate, 
to  protect  all  its  citizens,  whatever  their  former 
condition,  in  every  political  and  personal  right.' 

“  lteform  is  necessary,”  declares  the  St.  Louis 
Convention,  “to  establish  a  sound  currency,  re¬ 
store  the  public  credit  and  maintain  the  national 
honor;”  and  it  goes  on  to  “demand  a  judicious 
system  of  preparation  by  public  economies,  by 
official  retrenchments,  and  by  wise  finance, 
which  shall  enable  the  nation  soon  to  assure 
the  whole  world  of  its  perfect  ability  and  its 
perfect  readiness  to  meet  any  of  its  promises 
at  the  call  of  the  creditor  entitled  to  payment.” 
The  object  demanded  by  the  Convention  is  a 
resumption  of  specie  payments  on  the  legal- 
tender  notes  of  the  United  States.  That  would 
not  only  “restore  the  public  credit”  and 
“maintain  the  national  honor,”  but  it  would 
“  establish  a  sound  currency  ”  for  the  people 
The  methods  by  which  this  object  is  to  be  pur¬ 
sued,  and  the  moans  by  which  it  is  to  be  at¬ 
tained,  are  disclosed  by  what  the  Convention 
demanded  for  the  future,  and  by  what  it  de¬ 
nounced  in  the  past. 


Itesumptiou  of  specie  payments  by  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  United  States  on  its  legal-tender 
notes  would  establish  specie  payments  by  all  the 
banks  on  all  their  notes.  The  official  statement, 
made  on  the  12th  of  May,  shows  that  the 
amount  of  the  bank  notes  was  three  hundred 
millions,  less  twenty  millions  held  by  themselves. 
Against  these  two  hundred  and  eighty  millions 
of  notes  the  banks  held  one  hundred  and  forty- 
one  millions  of  legal-tender  notes,  or  a  little  more 
than  fifty  per  cent,  of  their  amount.  But  they 
also  held  on  deposit  in  the  Federal  Treasury,  as 
security  for  these  notes,  bonds  of  the  United 
States  worth  in  gold  about  three  hundred  and 

sixtv  millions,  available  and  current  in  all  the 
« 

foreign  money  markets.  In  resuming,  the  banks, 
even  if  it  were  possible  for  all  their  notes  to  be 
-presented  for  payment,  would  have  five  hun¬ 
dred  millions  of  specie  funds  to  pay  two  hundred 
and  eighty  millions  of  notes,  without  contracting 
their  loans  to  their  customers,  or  calling  on  any 
pxivate  debtor  for  payment.  Suspended  banks 
undertaking  to  resume  have  usually  been  obliged 
to  collect  from  needy  borrowers  the  means  to 
redeem  excessive  issues  and  to  provide  reserves. 
A  vague  idea  of  distress  is,  therefore,  often  as¬ 
sociated  with  the  process  of  resumption.  But 
the  conditions  which  caused  distress  in  those 
former  instances  do  not  now  exist.  The  Gov¬ 
ernment  has  only  to  make  good  its  own  prom¬ 
ises,  and  the  banks  can  take  care  of  themselves 
without  distressing  anybody.  The  Government 
is,  therefore,  the  sole  delinquent. 

The  amount  of  the  legal-tender  notes  of  the 
United  States  now  outstanding  is  less  than  three 
hundred  and  seventy  millions  of  dollars,  besides 
thirty-four  millions  of  dollars  of  fractional  cur¬ 
rency.  How  shall  the  Government  make  these 
notes  at  all  times  as  good  as  specie  ?  It  has  to 
provide,  in  reference  to  the  mass  which  would 
be  kept  in  use  by  the  wants  of  business,  a  cen¬ 
tral  reservoir  of  coin,  adequate  to  the  adjust¬ 
ment  of  the  temporary  fluctuations  of  interna¬ 
tional  balances,  and  as  a  guaranty  against  tran¬ 
sient  drains  artificially  created  by  panic  or  by 
speculation.  It  has  also  to  provide  for  the  pay¬ 
ment  in  coin  of  such  fractional  currency  as  may 
be  presented  for  redemption,  and  such  incon¬ 
siderable  portions  of  the  legal  tenders  as  indi¬ 
viduals  may  from  time  to  time  desire  to  convert 
for  special  use,  or  in  order  to  lay  by  in  coin 
their  little  stores  of  money. 

To  make  the  coin  now  in  the  Treasury  avail¬ 
able  for  the  objects  of  this  reserve,  to  gradually 
strengthen  and  enlarge  that  reserve,  and  to  pro¬ 
vide  for  such  other  exceptional  demands  for  coin 
as  may  arise,  does  not  Beem  to  me  a  work  of  dif¬ 
ficulty.  If  wisely  planned  and  discreetly  pur¬ 
sued,  it  ought  not  to  cost  any  sacrifice  to  the 
business  of  the  country.  It  should  tend,  on  the 
Contrary,  to  a  revival  of  hope  and  confidence. 
The  coin  in  the  Treasury  on  the  80th  of  June, 
including  what  is  held  against  coin  certificates, 
amounted  to  nearly  seventy-four  millions.  The 
current  of  precious  metals  which  has  flow’ed  out 
of  our  country  for  the  eleven  years  from  July  1, 
1805,  to  June  JO,  1870,  averaging  nearly  seventy- 
six  millions  a  year,  was  eight  hundred  and  thirty- 
two  millions  in  the  whole  period,  of  which  six 
hundred  and  seventeen  millions  were  the  pro- 


VI 


McPHEKSON’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


duct  of  our  own  mines.  To  amass  the  requisite 
quantity,  by  intercepting  from  the  current  fiow- 
i  :g  out  of  the  country,  and  by  acquiring  from 
the  stocks  which  exist  abroad  without  disturb¬ 
ing  the  equilibrium  of  foreign  money  markets, 
is  a  result  to  be  easily  worked  out  by  practical 
knowledge  and  judgment.  With  respect  to 
whatever  surplus  of  legal-tenders  the  wants  of 
business  may  fail  to  keep  in  use,  and  which,  in 
order  to  save  interest,  will  be  returned  for  re¬ 
demption,  they  can  either  be  paid  or  they  can 
be  funded.  Whether  they  continue  as  currency, 
or  be  absorbed  into  the  vast  mass  of  securities 
held  as  investments,  is  merely  a  question  of  the 
rate  of  interest  they  draw.  Even  if  they  were 
to  remain  in  their  present  form,  and  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  were  to  agree  to  pay  on  them  a  rate  of 
interest  making  them  desirable  as  investments, 
they  would  cease  to  circulate  and  take  their 
place  with  Government,  State,  Municipal,  and 
other  corporate  and  private  bonds,  of  which 
thousands  of  millions  exist  among  us.  In  the 
perfect  ease  with  which  they  can  be  changed 
from  currency  into  investments  lies  the  only 
danger  to  be  guarded  against  in  the  adoption  of 
general  measures  intended  to  remove  a  clearly 
ascertained  surplus  ;  that  is,  the  withdrawal  of 
any  which  are  not  a  permanent  excess  beyond 
the  wants  of  business.  Even  more  mischievous 
would  be  any  measure  which  affects  the  public 
imagination  with  the  fear  of  an  apprehended 
scarcity.  In  a  community  where  credit  is  so 
much  used,  fluctuations  of  values  and  vicissi¬ 
tudes  in  business  are  largely  caused  by  the  tem¬ 
porary  beliefs  of  men  even  before  those  beliefs  I 
can  conform  to  ascertained  realities. 

The  amount  of  the  necessary  currency  at  a 
given  time  cannot  be  determined  arbitrarily, 
and  should  not  be  assumed  on  conjecture.  That 
amount  is  subject  to  both  permanent  and  tem¬ 
porary  changes.  An  enlargement  of  it,  which 
seemed  to  be  durable,  happened  at  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  civil  war  by  a  substituted  use  of 
currency  in  place  of  individual  credits.  It 
varies  with  certain  states  of  business.  It  fluc¬ 
tuates,  with  considerable  regularity,  at  different 
seasons  of  the  year.  In  the  autumn,  for  in¬ 
stance,  when  buyers  of  grain  and  other  agricul¬ 
tural  products  begin  their  operations,  they 
usually  need  to  borrow  capital  or  circulating 
credits  by  which  to  make  their  purchases,  and 
want  these  funds  in  currency  capable  of  being 
distributed  in  small  sums  among  numerous 
sellers.  The  additional  need  of  currency  at 
such  times  is  five  or  more  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  volume,  and,  if  a  surplus  beyond  what  is 
required  for  ordinary  use  does  not  happen  to 
have  been  on  hand  at  the  money  centres,  a 
scarcity  of  currency  ensues,  and  also  a  strin¬ 
gency  in  the  loan  market.  It  was  in  reference 
to  such  experiences  that,  in  a  discussion  of  this 
subject  in  my  annual  Message  to  the  New-York 
Legislature  of  January  5,  1875,  the  suggestion 
was  made  that : 

“The  Federal  Government  is  bound  to  re¬ 
deem  every  portion  of  its  issues  which  the  pub¬ 
lic  do  not  wish  to  use.  Having  assumed  to 
monopolize  the  supply  of  currency  and  enacted 
exclusions  against  everybody  else,  it  is  bound  to 
furnish  all  which  the  wants  of  business  require.  ”  1 


*  *  *  “The  system  should  passively  allow 

the  volume  of  circulating  credits  to  ebb  and  flow, 
according  to  the  ever-changing  wants  of  busi¬ 
ness.  It  should  imitate,  as  closely  as  possible, 
the  natural  laws  of  trade,  which  it  has  super¬ 
seded  by  artificial  contrivances.”  And  in  a 
similar  discussion  in  my  Message  of  January  4, 
1870,  it  was  said  that  resumption  should  be 
effected  “by  such  measures  as  would  keep  the 
aggregate  amount  of  the  currency  self-adjusting 
during  all  the  process,  without  creating,  at  any 
time,  an  artificial  scarcity,  and  without  exciting 
the  public  imagination  with  alarms  which  im¬ 
pair  confidence,  contract  the  whole  large  ma¬ 
chinery  of  credit,  and  disturb  the  natural  oper¬ 
ations  of  business.” 

“  Public  economies,  official  retrenchments,  and 
wise  finance  ”  are  the  means  which  the  St  Louis 
Convention  indicates  as  provision  for  reserves 
and  redemptions.  The  best  resource  is  a  re¬ 
duction  of  the  expenses  of  the  Government  be¬ 
low'  its  income  ;  for  that  imposes  no  new'  charge 
on  the  people.  If,  however,  the  improvidence 
and  w'aste  which  have  conducted  us  to  a  period 
of  falling  revenues,  oblige  us  to  supplement  the 
results  of  economies  and  retrenchments  by  some 
resort  to  loans,  we  should  not  hesitate.  The 
Government  ought  not  to  speculate  on  its  owrn 
dishonor,  in  order  to  save  interest  on  its  broken 
promises,  wrhich  it  still  compels  private  dealers 
to  accept  at  a  fictitious  par.  The  highest  na¬ 
tional  honor  is  not  only  right,  but  would  prove 
profitable.  Of  the  public  debt  nine  hundred 
and  eighty-five  millions  bear  interest  at  six  per 
cent,  in  gold,  and  seven  hundred  and  twelve 
millions  at  five  per  cent,  in  gold.  The  average 
interest  is  5.58  per  cent.  A  financial  policy 
w'hich  should  secure  the  highest  credit,  wisely 
availed  of,  ought  gradually  to  obtain  a  reduc¬ 
tion  of  one  per  cent,  in  the  interest  on  most  of 
the  loans.  A  saving  of  one  per  cent,  on  the 
average  would  be  seventeen  millions  a  year  in 
gold.  That  saving  regularly  invested  at  four 
and  a  half  per  cent,  would,  in  less  than  thirty- 
eight  years,  extinguish  the  principal.  The 
whole  seventeen  hundred  millions  of  funded 
debt  might  be  paid  by  this  saving  alone,  with¬ 
out  cost  to  the  people. 

The  proper  time  for  resumption  is  the  time 
when  wise  preparations  shall  have  ripened  into 
a  perfect  ability  to  accomplish  the  object  with  a 
certainty  and  ease  that  will  inspire  confidence 
and  encourage  the  reviving  of  business.  The 
earliest  time  in  which  such  a  result  can  be 
brought  about  is  the  best.  Even  wfhen  the  prep¬ 
arations  shall  have  been  matured,  the  exact 
date  would  have  to  be  chosen  with  reference  to 
the  then  existing  state  of  trade  and  credit 
operations  in  our  own  country,  the  course  of 
foreign  commerce,  and  the  condition  of  the  ex¬ 
changes  with  other  nations.  The  specific  meas¬ 
ures  and  the  actual  date  are  matters  of  detail 
having  reference  to  ever-changing  conditions. 
They  belong  to  the  domain  of  practical  admin¬ 
istrative  statesmanship.  The  captain  of  a 
steamer  about  starting  from  New  York  to  Liv¬ 
erpool  does  not  assemble  a  council  over  his  ocean 
chart  and  fix  an  angle  by  which  to  lash  the  rud¬ 
der  for  the  whole  voyage.  A  human  intelligence 
must  be  at  the  helm  to  discern  the  shifting  forces 


McPHERSON’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


l:» 


of  the  waters  and  the  winds.  A  human  hand 
must  be  on  the  helm  to  feel  the  elements  day  by 
day,  and  guide  to  a  mastery  over  them. 

Such  preparations  are  everything.  Without 
them,  a  legislative  command  fixing  a  day,  an  of¬ 
ficial  promise  fixing  a  day,  are  shams.  They 
are  worse — they  are  a  snare  and  a  delusion  to 
all  who  trust  them.  They  destroy  all  confidence 
among  thoughtful  men  whose  judgment  will  at 
last  sway  public  opinion.  An  attempt  to  act  on 
such  a  command  or  such  a  promise,  without  prep¬ 
aration,  would  end  in  a  new  suspension.  It 
would  be  a  fresh  calamity,  prolific  of  confusion, 
distrust,  and  distress. 

The  act  of  Congress  of  the  14th  of  January, 
1875,  enacted  that,  on  and  after  the  1st  of  Janu¬ 
ary,  1879,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall 
redeem  in  coin  the  legal-tender  notes  of  the 
United  States  on  presentation  at  the  office  of  the 
Assistant  Treasurer  in  the  City  of  New  York. 
It  authorized  the  Secretary  “to  prepare  and 
provide  for  ”  such  resumption  of  specie  pay¬ 
ments  by  the  use  of  any  surplus  revenues  not 
otherwise  appropriated ;  and  by  issuing,  in  his 
discretion,  certain  classes  of  bonds.  More  than 
one  and  a  half  of  the  four  years  have  passed. 
Congress  and  the  President  have  continued  ever 
since  to  unite  in  acts  which  have  legislated  out 
of  existence  every  possible  surplus  applicable  to 
this  purpose.  The  coin  in  the  Treasury  claimed 
to  belong  to  the  Government  had,  on  the  80th 
of  June,  fallen  to  less  than  forty- five  millions  of 
dollars,  as  against  fifty-nine  millions  on  the  first 
of  January,  1875,  and  the  availability  of  a  part 
of  that  sum  is  said  to  be  questionable.  The  rev¬ 
enues  are  falling  faster  than  appropriations  and 
expenditures  are  reduced,  leaving  the  Treasury 
with  diminishing  resources.  The  Secretary  has 
done  nothing  under  his  power  to  issue  bonds. 
The  legislative  command,  the  official  promise 
fixing  a  day  for  resumption,  have  thus  far  been 
barren.  No  practical  preparations  tow’ard  re¬ 
sumption  have  been  made.  There  has  been  no 
progress.  There  have  been  steps  backward. 
There  is  no  necromancy  in  the  operations  of 
government.  The  homely  maxims  of  every-day 
life  are  the  best  standards  of  its  conduct.  A 
debtor  who  should  promise  to  pay  a  loan  out  of 
surplus  income,  yet  be  seen  every  day  spending 
all  he  could  lay  his  hands  on  in  riotous  living 
would  lose  all  character  for  honesty  and  verac¬ 
ity.  His  offer  of  a  new  promise  or  his  profes¬ 
sion  as  to  the  value  of  the  old  promise  would 
alike  provoke  derision. 

The  St.  Louis  platform  denounces  the  failure 
for  eleven  years  to  make  good  the  promise  of 
the  legal  tender  notes.  It  denounces  the  omis¬ 
sion  to  accumulate  “any  reserve  for  their  re¬ 
demption.”  It  donounces  the  conduct  “which, 
during  eleven  years  of  peace,  has  made  no  ad¬ 
vances  toward  resumption,  no  preparation  for 
resumption,  but  instead  has  obstructed  resump¬ 
tion  by  wasting  our  resources  and  exhausting 
all  our  surplus  income  ;  and,  while  professing  to 
intend  a  speedy  return  to  specie  payments,  has 
annually  enacted  fresh  hindrances  thereto.” 
And  having  first  denounced  the  barrenness  of 
the  promise  of  a  day  of  resumption,  it  next  de¬ 
nounces  that  barren  promise  as  “a  hindrance” 
to  resumption.  It  then  demands  its  repeal  and 


also  demands  the  establishment  of  “  a  judicious 
system  of  preparation,”  for  resumption.  It 
cannot  be  doubted  that  the  substitution  of  “a 
system  of  preparation  ”  without  the  promise  of 
a  day  for  the  worthless  promise  of  a  day  without 
“  a  system  of  preparation  ”  would  be  the  gain 
of  the  substance  of  resumption  in  exchange  for 
its  shadow.  Nor  is  the  denunciation  unmerited 
of  that  improvidence  which,  in  the  eleven  years 
since  the  peace,  has  consumed  four  thousand 
five  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and  yet  could 
not  afford  to  give  the  people  a  sound  and  stable 
currency. .  Two  and  a  half  per  cent,  on  the  ex- 
!  peuditures  of  these  eleven  years,  or  even  less, 
would  have  provided  all  the  additional  coin 
needful  to  resumption. 

The  distress  now  felt  by  the  people  in  all 
their  business  and  industries,  though  it  has  its 
principal  cause  in  the  enormous  waste  of  capi¬ 
tal  occasioned  by  the  false  policies  of  our  Gov- 
!  emment,  has  been  greatly  aggravated  by  the 
mismanagement  of  the  currency.  Uncertainty 
is  the  prolific  parent  of  mischiefs  in  all  busi¬ 
ness.  Never  were  its  evils  more  felt  than  now. 
Men  do  nothing  because  they  are  unable  to 
make  any  calculations  on  which  they  can  safely 
rely.  They  undertake  nothing  because  they 
'  fear  a  loss  in  everything  they  would  attempt. 

I  They  stop  and  wait.  The  merchant  dares  not 
buy  for  the  future  consumption  of  his  custom- 
;  ers.  The  manufacturer  dares  not  make  fabrics 
which  may  not  refund  his  outlay.  He  shuts 
his  factory  and  discharges  his  workmen.  Cap¬ 
italists  cannot  lend  on  security  they  consider 
!  safe,  and  their  funds  lie  almost  without  interest. 
Men  of  enterprise  who  have  credit,  or  securities 
to  pledge,  will  not  borrow.  Consumption  has 
fallen  below  the  natural  limits  of  a  reasonable 
economy.  Prices  of  many  things  are  under 
their  range  in  frugal,  specie-paying  times  before 
the  civil  war.  Vast  masses  of  currency  lie  in 
the  banks  unused.  A  year  and  a  half  ago  the 
legal  tenders  were  at  their  largest  volume,  and 
the  twelve  millions  since  retired  have  been  re¬ 
placed  by  fresh  issues  of  fifteen  millions  of  bank 
notes.  In  the  meantime  the  banks  have  been 
surrendering  about  four  millions  a  month,  be¬ 
cause  they  cannot  find  a  profitable  use  for  so 
'  many  of  their  notes.  The  public  mind  wnll  no 
longer  accept  shams.  It  has  suffered  enough 
from  illusions.  An  insecure  policy  increases 
distrust.  An  unstable  policy  increases  uncer¬ 
tainty.  The  people  need  to  know  that  the 
Government  is  moving  in  the  direction  of  ulti¬ 
mate  safety  and  prosperity,  and  that  it  is  doing 
so  through  prudent,  safe,  and  conservative 
methods,  which  will  be  sure  to  inflict  no  new 
sacrifice  on  the  business  of  the  country.  Then 
the  inspiration  of  new  hope  and  well  founded 
confidence  will  hasten  the  restoring  processes  of 
nature,  and  prosperity  will  begin  to  return. 
The  St.  Louis  Convention  concludes  its  ex¬ 
pression  in  regard  to  the  currency  by  a  declara¬ 
tion  of  its  convictions  as  to  the  practical  results 
of  the  system  of  preparations  it  demands.  It 
says  :  “  We  believe  such  a  system,  well  devised, 
and  above  all,  intrusted  to  competent  hands  for 
execution,  creating  at  no  time  an  artificial 
scarcity  of  currency,  and  at  no  time  alarming 
the  public  mind  into  a  withdrawal  of  that 


14 


McPHERSON'S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


vaster  machinery  of  credit  by  which  ninety- 
five  per  cent,  of  all  business  transactions  are 
performed — a  system  open,  public,  and  inspir¬ 
ing  general  confidence  would,  from  the  day  of 
its  adoption,  bring  healing  on  its  wings  to 
all  our  harassed  industries,  set  in  motion  the 
wheels  of  commerce,  manufactures,  and  the 
mechanic  arts,  restore  employment  to  labor, 
and  renew  in  all  its  natural  sources  the  pros¬ 
perity  of  the  people.”  The  Government  of  the 
United  States,  in  my  opinion,  can  advance  to  a 
resumption  of  specie  payments  on  its  legal 
tender  notes  by  gradual  and  safe  processes 
tending  to  relieve  the  present  business  distress. 
If  charged  by  the  people  with  the  administra¬ 
tion  of  the  Executive  office,  I  should  deem  it  a 
duty  so  to  exercise  the  powers  with  which  it 
has  been  or  may  be  invested  by  Congress  as 
best  and  soonest  to  conduct  the  country  to  that 
beneficent  result. 

The  Convention  justly  affirms  that  reform  is 
necessary  in  the  civil  service,  necessary  to  its 
purification,  necessary  to  its  economy  and  its 
efficiency,  necessary  in  order  that  the  ordinary 
employment  of  the  public  business  may  not  be 
“  a  prize  fought  for  at  the  ballot-box,  a  brief 
reward  of  party  zeal  instead  of  posts  of  honor 
assigned  for  proved  competency,  and  held  for 
fidelity  in  the  public  employ.”  The  Convention 
wisely  added  that  “  Reform  is  necessary  even 
more  in  the  highest  grades  of  the  public  service. 
President,  Vice-President,  Judges,  Senators, 
Representatives,  Cabinet  officers,  these  and  all 
others  in  authority  are  the  people’s  servants. 
Their  offices  are  not  a  private  perquisite,  they 
are  a  public  trust.  ”  Two  evils  infest  the  official 
service  of  the  Federal  Government.  One  is  the 
prevalent  and  demoralizing  notion  that  the  pub¬ 
lic  service  exists  not  for  the  business  and  bene¬ 
fit  of  the  whole  people,  but  for  the  interest  of 
the  office-holders,  who  are  in  truth  but  the  ser¬ 
vants  of  the  people.  Under  the  influence  of  this 
pernicious  error  public  employments  have  been 
multiplied ;  the  numbers  of  those  gathered  into 
the  ranks  of  office-holders  have  been  steadily  in¬ 
creased  beyond  any  possible  requirement  of  the 
public  business,  while  inefficiency,  peculation, 
fraud,  and  malversation  of  the  public  fmnds, 
from  the  high  places  of  power  to  the  lowest, 
have  overspread  the  whole  service  like  a  leprosy. 
The  other  evil  is  the  organization  of  the  official 
class  into  a  body  of  political  mercenaries,  gov¬ 
erning  the  caucuses  and  dictating  the  nomina¬ 
tions  of  their  own  party,  and  attempting  to  carry 
the  elections  of  the  people  by  undue  influence 
and  by  immense  corruption  ftinds  systematically 
collected  from  the  salaries  or  fees  of  office-hol¬ 
ders.  The  official  class  in  other  countries,  some¬ 
times  by  its  own  weight,  and  sometimes  in  alli¬ 
ance  with  the  army,  has  been  able  to  rule  the 
unorganized  masses  even  under  universal  suf¬ 
frage.  Here,  it  has  already  grown  into  a  gigan¬ 
tic  power,  capable  of  stifling  the  inspirations  of 
a  sound  public  opinion,  and  of  resisting  an  easy 
change  of  administration,  until  misgovemment 
becomes  intolerable  and  public  spirit  has  been 
stung  to  the  pitch  of  a  civic  revolution.  The 
first  step  in  reform  is  the  elevation  of  the  stand¬ 
ard  by  which  the  appointing  power  selects  agents 
to  execute  official  trusts.  Next  in  importance 


is  a  conscientious  fidelity  in  the  exercise  of  the 
authority  to  hold  to  account  and  displace  un¬ 
trustworthy  or  incapable  subordinates.  The 
public  interest  in  an  honest,  skillful  perform¬ 
ance  of  official  trust  must  not  be  sacrificed  to  the 
usufruct  of  the  incumbents.  After  these  imme¬ 
diate  steps,  which  will  insure  the  exhibition  of 
better  examples,  we  may  wisely  go  on  to  the 
abolition  of  unnecessary  offices,  and  finally  to 
the  patient,  careful  organization  of  a  better  civil- 
service  system,  under  the  tests,  wherever  prac¬ 
ticable,  of  proved  competency  and  fidelity. 
While  much  may  be  accomplislied  by  these 
methods,  it  might  encourage  delusive  expecta¬ 
tions  if  I  withheld  here  the  expression  of  my 
conviction  that  no  reform  of  the  civil  service  in 
this  country  will  be  complete  and  permanent 
until  its  Chief  Magistrate  is  constitutionally 
disqualified  for  re-election,  experience  having 
repeatedly  exposed  the  futility  of  self-im¬ 
posed  restrictions  by  candidates  or  incumbents. 
Through  this  solemnity  only  can  he  be  effect¬ 
ually  delivered  from  his  greatest  temptation  to 
misuse  the  power  and  patronage  with  which  the 
Executive  is  necessarily  charged. 

Educated  in  the  belief  that  it  is  the  first  duty 
of  a  citizen  of  the  Republic  to  take  his  fair  allot¬ 
ment  of  care  and  trouble  in  public  affairs,  I 
have,  for  forty  years,  as  a  private  citizen,  ful¬ 
filled  that  duty.  Though  occupied  in  an  unu¬ 
sual  degree  during  all  that  period  with  the  con¬ 
cerns  of  Government,  I  have  never  acquired  the 
habit  of  official  life.  When,  a  year  and  a  half 
ago,  I  entered  upon  my  present  trust,  it  was  in 
order  to  consummate  reforms  to  which  I  had  al¬ 
ready  devoted  several  of  the  best  years  of  my 
life.  Knowing  as  I  do,  therefore,  from  fresh 
experience,  howr  great  the  difference  is  between 
gliding  through  an  official  routine  and  working 
out  a  reform  of  systems  and  policies,  it  is  im¬ 
possible  for  me  to  contemplate  what  needs  to 
be  done  in  the  Federal  Administration  without 
an  anxious  sense  of  the  difficulties  of  the  under¬ 
taking.  If  siimmoned  by  the  suffrages  of  my 
countrymen  to  attempt  this  work,  I  shall  en¬ 
deavor,  writh  God’s  help,  to  be  the  efficient  in¬ 
strument  of  their  will. 

Samuel  J.  Tilden. 

To  Gen.  John  A.  McClernand,  Chairman  ;  Gen. 

W.  B.  Franklin,  Hon.  J.  G.  Abbott,  Hon.  H. 

J.  Spannhorst,  Hon.  H.  J.  Redfield,  Hon.  F. 

S.  Lyon,  and  others,  Committee,  &c. 


Gov.  Hendricks’  Getter  of  Accept¬ 
ance. 

Indianapolis,  July  24,  1876. 

Gentlemen  :  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowl¬ 
edge  the  receipt  of  your  communication,  in 
which  you  have  formally  notified  me  of  my  nom¬ 
ination  by  the  National  Democratic  Convention, 
at  St.  Louis,  as  their  candidate  for  the  office  of 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  It  is  a 
nomination  which  I  had  neither  expected  nor 
desired ;  and  yet  I  recognize  and  appreciate  the 
high  honor  done  me  by  the  Convention.  The 
choice  of  such  a  body,  pronounced  with  such 
unusxial  unanimity,  and  accompanied  with  so 
generous  an  expression  of  esteem  and  confidence 
ought  to  outweigh  all  merely  personal  desires 


McPHERSON'S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


15 


and  preferences  of  my  own.  It  is  with  this  feel¬ 
ing,  and  I  trust  also  from  a  deep  sense  of  public 
duty,  that  I  now  accept  the  nomination,  and 
shall  abide  the  judgment  of  my  countrymen. 

It  would  have  been  impossible  for  me  to  ac¬ 
cept  the  nomination  if  I  could  not  heartily  in¬ 
dorse  the  platform  of  the  Convention.  I  am 
gratified,  therefore,  to  be  able  unequivocally  to 
declare  that  I  agree  in  the  principles,  approve 
the  policies,  and  sympathize  with  the  purposes 
enunciated  in  that  platform. 

The  institutions  of  our  country  have  been 
sorely  tried  by  the  exigencies  of  civil  war,  and, 
since  the  peace*by  a  selfish  and  coirupt  man¬ 
agement  of  public  affairs,  which  has  shamed  us 
before  civilized  mankind.  By  unwise  and  par¬ 
tial  legislation  every  industry  and  interest  of  the 
people  have  been  made  to  suffer,  and  in  the 
executive  departments  of  the  Government  dis¬ 
honesty,  rapacity  and  venality  have  debauched 
the  public  service.  Men  known  to  be  unworthy 
have  been  promoted,  while  others  have  been  de¬ 
graded  for  fidelity  to  official  duty.  Public  office 
has  been  made  the  means  of  private  profit,  and 
the  country  has  been  offended  to  see  a  class  of 
men  who  boast  the  friendship  of  the  sworn  pro¬ 
tectors  of  the  State  amassing  fortunes  by  de¬ 
frauding  the  public  treasury  and  by  corrupting 
the  servants  of  the  people.  In  such  a  crisis  of 
the  history  of  the  country  I  rejoice  that  the 
Convention  at  St.  Louis  has  so  nobly  raised  the 
standard  of  reform.  Nothing  can  be  well  with 
us  or  with  our  affairs  until  the  public  con¬ 
science,  shocked  by  the  enormous  evils  and 
abuses  which  prevail,  shall  have  demanded  and 
compelled  an  unsparing  reformation  of  our 
National  Administration,  “in  its  head  and  in 
its  members.”  In  such  a  reformation  the  re¬ 
moval  of  a  single  officer,  even  the  President,  is 
comparatively  a  trifling  matter,  if  the  system 
which  he  represents,  and  which  has  fostered 
him  as  he  has  fostered  it,  is  suffered  to  remain. 
The  President  alone  must  not  be  made  the 
scapegoat  for  the  enormities  of  the  system 
which  infects  the  public  service,  and  threatens 
the  destruction  of  our  institutions.  In  some 
respects  I  hold  that  the  present  Executive  has 
been  the  victim  rather  than  the  author  of  that 
vicious  system .  Congressional  and  party  lead¬ 
ers  have  been  stronger  than  the  President.  No 
one  man  could  have  created  it,  and  the  removal 
of  no  one  man  can  amend  it.  It  is  thoroughly 
corrupt,  and  must  be  swept  remorselessly  away 
by  the  selection  of  a  Government  composed  of 
elements  entirely  new,  and  pledged  to  radical 
reform. 

The  first  work  of  reform  must  evidently  be 
the  restoration  of  the  normal  operation  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  with  all  its 
amendments.  The  necessities  of  war  cannot 
be  pleaded  in  time  of  peace  ;  the  right  of  local 
self-government  as  guaranteed  by  the  Constitu¬ 
tion  of  the  Union  must  be  everywhere  restored, 
and  the  centralized  (almost  personal)  imperial¬ 
ism  which  has  been  practiced  must  be  done 
away  or  the  first  principles  of  the  Republic  will 
be  lost. 

Our  financial  system  of  expedients  must  be 
reformed.  Gold  and  silver  are  the  real  stand¬ 
ard  of  values,  and  our  national  currency  will 


not  be  a  porfect  medium  of  exchange  until  it 
shall  be  convertible  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
holder.  As  I  have  heretofore  said,  no  one  de¬ 
sires  a  return  to  specie  payments  more  earn¬ 
estly  than  I  do  ;  but  I  do  not  believe  that  it  will 
or  can  be  reached  in  harmony  with  the  interests 
of  the  people  by  artificial  measures  for  the  con¬ 
traction  of  the  currency,  any  more  than  I  be¬ 
lieve  that  wealth  or  permanent  prosperity  can 
be  created  by  an  inflation  of  the  currency.  The 
laws  of  finance  cannot  be  disregarded  with  im¬ 
punity.  The  financial  policy  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  if  indeed,  it  deserves  the  name  of  policy 
at  all,  has  been  in  disregard  of  those  laws,  and 
therefore  has  disturbed  commercial  and  busi¬ 
ness  confidence,  as  well  as  hindered  a  return  to 
specie  payments.  One  feature  of  that  policy 
was  the  resumption  clause  of  the  act  of  1875, 
which  has  embarrassed  the  country  by  the  anti¬ 
cipation  of  a  compulsory  resumption  for  which 
no  preparation  has  been  made,  and  without  any 
assurance  that  it  would  be  practicable.  The 
repeal  of  that  clause  is  necessary  that  the  natu¬ 
ral  operation  of  financial  laws  may  be  restored, 
that  the  business  of  the  country  may  be  relieved 
from  its  disturbing  and  depressing  influence, 
and  that  a  return  to  specie  payments  may  be 
facilitated  by  the  substitution  of  wiser  and  more 
prudent  legislation  which  shall  mainly  rely  on 
a  judicious  system  of  public  economies  and 
official  retrenchments,  and  above  all  on  the  pro¬ 
motion  of  prosperity  in  all  the  industries  of  the 
people. 

I  do  not  understand  the  repeal  of  the  resump¬ 
tion  clause  of  the  act  of  1875  to  be  a  backward 
step  in  our  return  to  specie  payments,  but  the 
recovery  of  a  false  step  ;  and,  although  the  re¬ 
peal  may,  for  a  time,  be  prevented,  yet  the 
determination  of  the  Democratic  party  on  this 
subject  has  now  been  distinctly  declared.  There 
should  be  no  hindrances  put  in  the  way  of  the 
return  to  specie  payments.  “As  such  a  hin¬ 
drance,”  says  the  platform  of  the  St.  Louis 
Convention,  “  we  denounce  the  resumption 
clause  of  the  act  of  1875,  and  demand  its  re¬ 
peal.  ” 

I  thoroughly  believe  that  by  public  economy, 
by  official  retrenchments,  and  by  wise  finance 
enabling  us  to  accumulate  the  precious  metals, 
resumption,  at  an  early  period,  is  possible  with¬ 
out  producing  an  “artificial  scarcity  of  cur¬ 
rency,”  or  disturbing  public  or  commercial 
credit;  and  that  these  reforms,  together  with 
the  restoration  of  pure  government,  will  restore 
general  confidence,  encourage  the  useful  invest¬ 
ment  of  capital,  furnish  employment  to  labor, 
and  relieve  the  country  from  the  “paralysis  of 
hard  times.” 

With  the  industries  of  the  people  there  have 
been  frequent  interferences.  Our  platform 
truly  says  that  many  industries  have  been  im¬ 
poverished  to  subsidize  a  few.  Our  commerce 
lias  been  degraded  to  an  inferior  position  on 
the  high  seas;  manufactures  have  been  dimin¬ 
ished  ;  agriculture  has  been  embarrassed,  and 
the  distress  of  the  industrial  classes  demands 
that  these  things  shall  be  reformed. 

The  burdens  of  the  people  must  als6  be  light¬ 
ened  by  a  great  change  in  our  system  of  public 
expenses.  The  profligate  expenditures  which 


1C> 


McPHEHSON’S  HAND-BOOK  OF  POLITICS. 


increased  taxation  from  $5  per  capita  in  1800, 
to  $18  in  1870,  tells  its  own  story  of  our  need 
of  fiscal  reform. 

Our  treaties  with  foreign  powers  should  also 
be  revised  and  amended,  in  so  far  as  they  leave 
citizens  of  foreign  birth  in  any  particular  less 
secure  in  any  country  on  earth  than  they  would 
be  if  they  had  been  born  upon  our  own  soil ; 
and  the  iniquitous  coolie  system  which,  through 
the  agency  of  wealthy  companies,  imports  Chi¬ 
nese  bondmen,  and  establishes  a  species  of 
slavery,  and  interferes  with  the  just  rewards  of 
labor  on  our  Pacific  coast  should  be  utterly 
abolished. 

In  the  reform  of  our  civil  service  I  most 
heartily  indorse  that  section  of  the  platform 
which  declares  that  the  civil  service  ought  not 
to  be  “  subject  to  change  at  every  election,” 
and  that  it  ought  not  to  be  made  “  the  brief 
reward  of  party  zeal,  but  ought  to  be  awarded 
for  proved  competency  and  held  for  fidelity  in 
the  public  employ.”  I  hope  never  again  to  see 
the  cruel  and  remorseless  proscription  for  po¬ 
litical  opinions  which  has  disgraced  the  Admin¬ 
istration  of  the  last  eight  years.  Bad  as  the 
civil  service  now  is,  as  all  know,  it  has  some 
men  of  tried  integrity  and  proved  ability.  Such 
men,  and  such  men  only,  should  be  retained  in 
office  ;  but  no  man  should  be  retained,  on  any 
consideration,  who  has  prostituted  his  office  to 
the  purposes  of  partisan  intimidation  or  com¬ 
pulsion,  or  who  has  furnished  money  to  cor¬ 
rupt  the  elections.  This  is  done,  and  has  been 
done  in  almost  every  county  in  the  land.  It  is 
a  blight  upon  the  morals  of  the  country,  and 
ought  to  be  reformed. 

Of  sectional  contentions,  and  in  respect  to 
our  common  schools,  I  have  only  this  to  say : 
That  in  my  judgment,  the  man  or  party  that 
would  involve  our  schools  in  political  or  sec¬ 
tarian  controversy  is  an  enemy  to  the  schools. 
The  common  schools  are  safer  under  the  pro¬ 
tecting  care  of  all  the  people  than  under  the 
control  of  any  party  or  sect.  They  must  be 
neither  sectarian  nor  partisan,  and  there  must 
be  neither  division  nor  misappropriation  of  the 
funds  for  their  support.  Likewise  I  regard  the 
man  who  would  arouse  or  foster  sectional  ani¬ 
mosities  and  antagonisms  among  his  country¬ 


men  as  a  dangerous  enemy  to  his  country.  All 
the  people  must  be  made  to  feel  and  know'  that 
once  more  there  is  established  a  purpose  and 
policy  under  which  all  citizens  of  every  con¬ 
dition,  race,  and  color,  will  be  secure  in  the  en¬ 
joyment  of  whatever  rights  the  Constitution  and 
law's  declare  or  recognize ;  and  that  in  contro¬ 
versies  that  may  arise  the  Government  is  not  a 
partisan,  but  within  its  constitutional  authority 
the  just  and  powerful  guardian  of  the  rights 
and  safety  of  all.  The  strife  between  the  sec¬ 
tions  and  between  races  wall  cease  as  soon  as  the 
pow'er  for  evil  is  taken  away  from  a  party  that 
makes  political  gain  out  of  scales  of  violence 
and  bloodshed,  and  the  constitutional  authority 
is  placed  in  the  hands  of  men  wdiose  political 
welfare  requires  that  peace  and  good  order 
shall  be  preserved  everywhere. 

It  will  be  seen,  gentlemen,  that  I  am  in  en¬ 
tire  accord  with  the  platform  of  the  Convention 
by  which  I  have  been  nominated  as  a  candidate 
for  the  office  of  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States.  Permit  me,  in  conclusion,  to  express 
my  satisfaction  at  being  associated  with  a  can¬ 
didate  for  the  Presidency  who  is  first  among 
his  equals  as  a  representative  of  the  spirit  and 
of  the  achievements  of  reform.  In  his  official 
career  as  the  Executive  of  the  great  State  of 
New  York,  he  has,  in  a  comparatively  short 
period,  reformed  the  public  service  and  re¬ 
duced  the  public  burdens,  so  as  to  have 
earned  at  once  the  gratitude  of  his  State  and 
the  admiration  of  the  country.  The  people 
know'  him  to  be  thoroughly  in  earnest ;  he  has 
show'll  himself  to  be  possessed  of  powers  and 
qualities  which  fit  him,  in  an  eminent  degree, 
for  the  great  work  of  reformation  which  this 
country  now  needs  ;  and  if  he  shall  be  chosen 
by  the  people  to  the  high  office  of  President  of 
the  United  States,  I  believe  that  the  day  of  his 
inauguration  w'ill  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  era 
of  peace,  purity,  and  prosperity  in  all  depart¬ 
ments  of  our  Government.  I  am,  gentlemen, 
your  obedient  servant, 

Thomas  A.  Hendricks. 

To  Hon.  John  A.  McClernand,  Chairman,  and 
others  of  the  Committee  of  the  National 
Democratic  Convention. 


